The international community recommits itself to the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention

by Ray Wilkinson

It was an unprecedented gathering at a particularly sensitive time. Some 156 countries, non-governmental organizations, academics and other groups met in Geneva's Palais des Nations for what High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers called the most important global meeting on refugees in a half century.

After two days of speeches and discussions, the year-end conference adopted a landmark declaration reaffirming the commitment of signatory states to the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention. The treaty has already helped millions of people to build new lives, but has come under fire as increasingly irrelevant in a new and more complicated millennium far removed from the conditions in which the document was originally framed in the ashes of World War II.

The timing of the meeting was particularly poignant. It came three months after the September 11 attacks in the United States, the fallout from which turned the international spotlight not only on terrorism, but also on the unending humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the plight of refugees and asylum seekers globally.

Though many of the governments present in Geneva (143 nations have actually signed the Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol) were urgently pressing ahead with national security and anti-terrorism legislation, some of which could potentially adversely affect refugees, signatory states at the conference unanimously approved the declaration. This recognized the 'enduring importance' 'relevance and resilience' of the Convention and vowed to further strengthen the instrument which Lubbers underlined was a treaty "about freedom from fear."

GLOBAL CONSULTATIONS

The ministerial-level meeting was part of a process called Global Consultations on International Protection which UNHCR launched at the start of 2001 involving governments, non-governmental organizations, academics, judges and other experts on refugees and refugee law. The process was aimed at reaffirming the centrality of the Convention in helping the world's uprooted peoples and examining contentious issues threatening to undermine the international system of protection.

The Consultations are scheduled to end in mid-2002 at which time UNHCR will draw up a set of objectives entitled an Agenda for Protection to serve as a guide to governments and humanitarian organizations in their efforts to strengthen worldwide refugee protection.

Though some governments have merely paid lip service to the Convention in recent years and others believe it is increasingly outdated, the declaration affirmed nations "commitment to implement our obligations under the 1951 Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol fully and effectively" and promised to "address the causes of refugee movements, as well as to prevent them."

It contained recommendations encouraging countries that have not yet done so, to accede to the Convention, to strengthen or adopt national refugee legislation and, because of the events of September 11 in the U.S., to be particularly careful in applying articles in the treaty covering the exclusion from its protection of persons suspected of committing serious crimes.

UNHCR was reaffirmed as "the multilateral institution with the mandate to provide international protection to refugees" and governments were encouraged to both strengthen their cooperation with the organization and "respond promptly, predictably and adequately" to its funding needs.

The declaration emphasized that the principle of non-forcible return of asylum seekers (refoulement) was sacrosanct. It said 'prevention' of crises was the best way to avoid future outflows, and that while states should encourage 'voluntary repatriation' they should also continue to help particularly vulnerable people to integrate or resettle in new countries.

U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan had told the conference that there was a growing tendency to equate refugees "at best with economic migrants, and at worst with cheats, criminals or even terrorists. We must refute this gross calumny. Refugees are victims of autocratic or abusive regimes, of conflict, and of criminal smuggling rings."

As if to prove that point, Ms. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, who rose from refugee to become the President of Latvia, told the meeting of her flight to freedom: "Three weeks and three days after my family left the shores of Latvia, my little sister died. We buried her by the roadside and were never able to return or put a flower on her grave. And I like to think that I stand here today as a survivor who speaks for all those who died by the roadside, some buried by their families and others not."

Source: Refugees Magazine Issue 125: "The September Terror: A Global Impact" (January 2002). Download the complete issue (pdf, 1.2Mb) here