Legal Responses In Specific Terms Of Migration Challenges
Presented by: Dr. BÉRES
Date: 6 May 2024
The Relevance of the Refugee Convention Nowadays
- State Parties: 146
- Central Europe:
- Accession (a), succession (d)
- Croatia
• 12 Oct 1992 (d)
- Czech Republic
• 11 May 1993 (d)
- Hungary
• 14 Mar 1989 (a)
- Poland
• 27 Sep 1991 (a)
- Romania
• 7 Aug 1991 (a)
- Serbia
• 12 Mar 2001 (d)
- Slovakia
• 4 Feb 1993 (d)
- Slovenia
• 6 Jul 1992 (d)
- UNHCR Refugee Data Finder (last update: 24 October 2023)
- 110 million
• Specific categories: Forcibly displaced people
- 62.5 million
• Specific categories: IDPs
- 36.4 million
• Specific categories: Refugees
- 6.1 million
• Specific categories: Asylum seekers
- 5.3 million
• Specific categories: Other people in need of international protection
- 52% originate from just three countries
• Specific categories: Syrian Arab Republic, Afghanistan, Ukraine
- UNHCR Refugee Data Finder (last update: 24 October 2023)
- Islamic Republic of Iran
• Number of hosted refugees: 3.4 million
- Türkiye
• Number of hosted refugees: 3.4 million
- Germany
• Number of hosted refugees: 2.5 million
- Columbia
• Number of hosted refugees: 2.5 million
- Pakistan
• Number of hosted refugees: 2.1 million
Historical Background
- A response to the horrifying events taken place during the WWII (Holocaust, Stalinist
expansion)
- Offering protection for persecuted victims of highly organized predatory States
- Approach: a kind of prestige for Western States to offer asylum for refugees from the
Soviet bloc
- 1967 Protocol: universal scope
Textual Language of the Refugee Convention
- 1951: no universal human rights treaties yet
- A State-centered approach
- Refugee rights under the Convention are neither unalienable nor unconditional
- Basic set of rights + additional entitlements
Who is a Refugee? Art. 1(A)(2) of the Refugee Convention
- For the purposes of the present Convention, the term "refugee" shall apply to any person
who:
• (Refugees Having Nationality)
Owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted
For reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular
social group or political opinion,
Is outside the country of his nationality and
Is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the
protection of that country;
• (Stateless Persons)
Or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his
former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing
to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.
The Limitations of the Refugee Definition
- From the outset, the refugee protection regime was intended to be restrictive and partial,
a compromise between State sovereignty and the protection of non-citizen victims of
serious human rights violations
The Preconditions of the Refugee Status
- Inclusion clause
- Exclusion clause
- Cessation clause
Concluding Remarks
- Not able to provide protection for
• IDPs
• Those who flee their home countries without persecution or
• Owing to some other drivers not enumerated under Art. 1(A)(2), e.g. armed
conflicts, famine, extreme poverty
- Not a human rights treaty guaranteeing unalienable and unconditional rights paired with
refugee status
- Refugee rights are also incremental, that is, the more the bond strengthens between the
refugee and the asylum State, the more the Refugee Convention provides for refugees
