Introduction to the International

Protection Regime
Hargeisa, Somaliland, 01-05 March 2020
Origins
World War I / World War II
From a case-by-case response to international cooperation

Core instruments of International Refugee Law

- UNHCR Statute
- 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
- 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees
UNHCR Statute
• Call upon governments to cooperate with UNHCR

• UNHCR’s work is humanitarian and social and of an entirely

non-political character
– Implementing International Law (Refugee & Human Rights)
– Special agreements to improve the situation of refugees
– Measures to ensure access and admission to territory
– Solutions
1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its
1967 Protocol
• Defines who is a refugee

• Establishes the principle that refugees should not be forcibly

returned to danger (non-refoulement)

• 1967 Protocol eliminated temporal and geographical

limitations
International Protection
• States are responsable for protecting the rights of their citizens.

• When States are unable or unwilling people may face such

serious threats that they are forced to leave their country and
seek safety elsewhere.

• In such situations, another country has to step in to ensure rights

are respected. This is known as “international protection”.
Protection

• All activities aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights of

the individual in accordance with the letter and the spirit of
the relevant bodies of law (i.e. International Human Rights
Law (IHRL), International Humanitarian Law, International
Refugee law. (IASC)
Refugees and asylum-seekers
What is the difference?
Who is a refugee under the 1969 OAU
Convention?
Art. 1(2)
The term “refugee” shall also apply to every person who, owing
to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or
events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the
whole of his country of origin or nationality, is compelled to
leave his place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in
another place outside his country of origin or nationality.
Refugees and migrants
What is the difference?
Asylum as a human right
What is involved?
• Non-refoulement
• Admission to the territory
• Access to fair and effetcive protection processes
• Access to UNHCR
• Civilian, peaceful and humanitarian nature of asylum
• Duty to respect laws of host State
Non-Refoulement
Under the 1951 Convention
• Art. 33 (1). “No contracting State shall expel or return
(refouler) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the
frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be
threatened on account of his race, religión, nationality,
membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”

• Exceptions
Protection in Practice
Identify Protection Risks

• Refoulement
• Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA)
• Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV)
• Detention
Exercise

• You are being deployed to the border of Turkey with Iraq to

conduct a rapid protection assessment.

• Watch the video.

• Note down the most serious protection risks and the most
urgent interventions required.
Protection equation

RISK

Reduce threats Reduce vulnerability

Increase capacities