Refugees
- LAST REVIEWED: 31 March 2016
- LAST MODIFIED: 31 March 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199796953-0134
- LAST REVIEWED: 31 March 2016
- LAST MODIFIED: 31 March 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199796953-0134
Introduction
People move from their homes for many reasons. They may travel in search of increased economic opportunities, to reunite with loved ones living far away, or to escape poor living conditions, ethnic discrimination, religious conflict, or war. Some of these people will move within their home country, while some will cross international borders. Those who move outside of their country of origin may encounter problems when they seek to enter into another state. Each country has its own set of rules regarding which people can enter, work, and reside in its territory. Generally speaking, it is a state’s sovereign right to deny entry to individuals it deems undesirable, or who do not meet certain criteria that it has established. There is one group, however, to whom international law provides special protection: refugees. When a person seeks asylum at a state’s border, that state makes a determination regarding whether or not the person is a “refugee.” If the asylum-seeker is deemed a refugee, he or she is entitled to certain rights, such as nondiscrimination, the right not to be penalized for illegal entry or stay, and—critically—the right not to be returned to a place where he or she may fear for their life or freedom (known as the principle of “non-refoulement”). The notion of granting asylum to people fleeing danger or persecution goes back many thousands of years. Contemporary refugee protection, however, is very much a product of the 20th century. Following World War I, the League of Nations launched a number of programs for assisting and repatriating refugees, most of which were focused on particular situations of conflict and displacement. In 1921, the League established a High Commissioner for Russian Refugees charged with assisting refugees from the Russian Revolution. In 1933, it appointed a High Commissioner for refugees coming from Germany, whose office helped to find permanent homes for refugees fleeing Germany and the rising tide of Nazism. In 1938, the League set up a High Commissioner for Refugees and an Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, which initially focused on refugees coming from Germany and Austria but later expanded its mandate to cover all refugee groups in Europe after World War II. The impact of World War II transformed the refugee protection system. During the war, millions of people were displaced from their homes. Large numbers fled across national borders, seeking shelter in other states. Protecting and resettling these refugees was an immediate priority for the newly formed United Nations. In 1947, the UN established the International Refugee Organization (IRO) to deal with the general protection of refugees. The 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights included a right to seek and enjoy asylum (Article 14). And in 1950, the IRO was replaced by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which continues to this day to provide assistance to refugees and displaced persons. UNHCR oversees the treaty considered to be the cornerstone of the international system for the protection of refugees: the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, adopted in 1951 (the Refugee Convention), and its 1967 Protocol. The 1951 Refugee Convention defines which people are “refugees” and sets standards for their assistance and treatment.
General Overviews
Most discussions of international refugee law begin with the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, which have formed the foundation of international law on the subject. Early classics that focus on the Convention and its history include Weis 1995, Robinson 1953, and Grahl-Madsen 1972, and a more contemporary take can be found in Zimmermann 2011. Today, refugee protection is governed by a mix of international law, human rights, regional agreements, and national rules. Actors include individuals, states, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), companies, smugglers and traffickers, and nonstate groups, which all have an impact on the movement and protection of those seeking refuge. This array of rules and actors is further complicated by the fact that refugee protection takes place against the intricate background of the local, regional, and international politics that leads people to flee their homes. This complexity makes multilevel and interdisciplinary approaches, such as those found in Vedsted-Hansen 2015, Goodwin-Gill and McAdam 2007, and Hathaway 2005 particularly useful. The texts referenced below are intended to give the reader an overview of the landscape of refugee law and policy.
Goodwin-Gill, Guy, and Jane McAdam. The Refugee in International Law. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
A leading treatise covering all aspects of international refugee law.
Grahl-Madsen, Atle. The Status of Refugees in International Law. Leiden, The Netherlands: A. W. Sijthoff, 1972.
A classic foundational text on international refugee law that has cast an enduring shadow over the discipline.
Hathaway, James. The Rights of Refugees under International Law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
A treatise discussing the rights of refugees in international law. This reference work pays particular attention to the UN Refugee Convention and the links between international refugee law and international human rights law.
Robinson, Nehemiah. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees: Its History, Contents and Interpretation; A Commentary. New York: Institute of Jewish Affairs, 1953.
The first legal commentary on the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. This work is now considered an early classic on the subject.
Vedsted-Hansen, Jens, ed. The Refugee Law Reader: Cases, Documents and Materials. 7th ed. Budapest: Hungarian Helsinki Committee, 2015.
A useful volume collecting case law, treaties, and other relevant documents relating to recent and historically significant international and national practice in the area of refugee law.
Weis, Paul. The Refugee Convention 1951: The Travaux Préparatoires Analysed with a Commentary. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
An early commentary by Paul Weis, who represented the IRO and UNHCR during the process of drafting the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. This work is now considered an early classic on the subject.
Zimmermann, Andreas, ed. The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and Its 1967 Protocol: A Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
A contemporary commentary providing a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, proceeding on an article-by-article basis and including many links to related fields of international law.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Act of State Doctrine
- Africa and Intellectual Property Rights for Plant Varietie...
- African Approaches to International Law
- African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Af...
- Africa’s International Intellectual Property Law Regimes
- Africa’s International Investment Law Regimes
- Agreements, Bilateral and Regional Trade
- Agreements, Multilateral Environmental
- Aliens
- Applicable Law in Investment Agreements
- Archipelagic States
- Arctic Region
- Armed Opposition Groups
- Aut Dedere Aut Judicare
- Balance of Power
- Bandung Conference, The
- Boundaries
- British Mandate of Palestine and International Law, The
- Children's Rights
- China, Judicial Application of International Law in
- China, Law of the Sea in
- Civil Service, International
- Civil-Military Relations
- Codification
- Cold War International Law
- Collective Security
- Command Responsibility
- Common Heritage of Mankind
- Complementarity Principle
- Compliance in International Law
- Conspiracy/Joint Criminal Enterprise
- Constitutional Law, International
- Consular Relations
- Contemporary Catholic Approaches
- Continental Shelf, Idea and Limits of the
- Cooperation in Criminal Matters, Cross-Border
- Countermeasures
- Courts, International
- Crimes against Humanity
- Criminal Law, International
- Cultural Rights
- Cyber Espionage
- Cyber Warfare
- Debt, Sovereign
- Decolonization in International Law
- Democracy
- Development Law, International
- Disarmament in International Law
- Discrimination
- Disputes, Peaceful Settlement of
- Drugs, International Regulation, and Criminal Liability
- Early 19th Century, 1789-1870
- Ecological Restoration and International Law
- Economic Law, International
- Effectiveness and Evolution in Treaty Interpretation
- Enforced Disappearances in International Law
- Enforcement of Human Rights
- Environmental Compliance Mechanisms
- Environmental Institutions, International
- Environmental Law, International
- Estoppel
- European Arrest Warrant
- Exclusive Economic Zone
- Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Treaties
- Fascism and International Law
- Feminist Approaches to International Law
- Financial Law, International
- Forceful Intervention for Protection of Human Rights in Af...
- Foreign Investment
- Fragmentation
- Freedom of Expression
- French Revolution
- Gender and International Law, Theoretical and Methodologic...
- Gender and International Security
- General Customary Law
- General Principles of Law
- Genocide
- Georgia and International Law
- Grotius, Hugo
- Habeas Corpus
- Hijaz and International Law, The
- History of International Law, 1550–1700
- Hostilities, Direct Participation in
- Human Rights
- Human Rights and Regional Protection, Relativism and Unive...
- Human Rights, European Court of
- Human Rights, Foundations of
- Human Rights Law, History of
- Human Trafficking
- Hybrid International Criminal Tribunals
- Immunities
- Immunity, Sovereign
- in Latin America and the Caribbean, International Legal Pr...
- Indigenous Peoples
- Individual Criminal Responsibility
- Institutional Law
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and Inte...
- International and Non-International Armed Conflict, Detent...
- International Committee of the Red Cross
- International Community
- International Court of Justice
- International Criminal Court, The
- International Criminal Law, Complicity in
- International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
- International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ...
- International Fisheries Law
- International Humanitarian Law
- International Humanitarian Law, China and
- International Humanitarian Law, Targeting in
- International Intellectual Property Law, China and
- International Investment Agreements, Fair and Equitable Tr...
- International Investment Arbitration
- International Investment Law, China and
- International Investment Law, Expropriation in
- International Law, Aggression in
- International Law, Amnesty and
- International Law and Economic Development
- International Law, Anthropology and
- International Law, Big Data and
- International Law, Climate Change and
- International Law, Derogations and Reservations in
- International Law, Dispute Settlement in
- International Law, Ecofeminism and
- International Law, Espionage in
- International Law, Hegemony in
- International Law in Cyberspace, China and
- International Law in Greek
- International Law in Italian
- International Law in Northeast Asia
- International Law in Portuguese
- International Law in Turkish
- International Law, Legitimacy in
- International Law, Marxist Approaches to
- International Law, Military Intervention in
- International Law, Money Laundering in
- International Law, Monism and Dualism in
- International Law, Peacekeeping in
- International Law, Proportionality in
- International Law, Reasonableness in
- International Law, Recognition in
- International Law, Self-Determination in
- International Law, State Responsibility in
- International Law, State Succession in
- International Law, the State in
- International Law, The Turkish-Greek Population Exchange a...
- International Law, the Turn to History in
- International Law, The United States and
- International Law, Trade and Development in
- International Law, Unequal Treaties in
- International Law, Use of Force in
- International Legal Personality
- International Regulation of the Internet
- International Relations Study in China, International Law ...
- International Rule of Law, An
- International Territorial Administration
- International Trade and Human Rights
- Intervention, Humanitarian
- Investment Protection Treaties
- Investor-State Conciliation and Mediation
- Iran and International Law
- Iraq War, Britain and the
- Islamic Cooperation, International Law and the Organizatio...
- Islamic International Law
- Islamic Law and Human Rights
- Islands
- Jerusalem
- Jurisdiction
- Jurisprudence (Judicial Law-Making)
- Jus Cogens
- Just War
- Landlocked Countries and the Law of the Sea
- Law of the Sea
- Law of Treaties, The
- Law-Making by Non-State Actors
- League of Nations, The
- Lebanon, Special Tribunal for
- Legal Pluralism
- Legal Status of Military Forces Abroad
- Liability for International Environmental Harm
- Liberation and Resistance Movements
- Mandates in International Law
- Maritime Delimitation
- Martens Clause
- Medieval International Law
- Mens Rea, International Crimes
- Middle East Boundaries and State Formation
- Migration
- Military Necessity
- Military Occupation
- Minorities
- Modes of Participation
- Most-Favored-Nation Clauses
- Multinational Corporations in International Law
- Nationality and Statelessness
- Natural Law
- Neutrality
- New Approaches to International Law
- New Haven School of International Law, The
- Non liquet
- Noninternational Armed Conflict (“Civil War”)
- Nonstate Actors
- Nuclear Non-Proliferation
- Nuremberg Trials
- Organizations, International
- Pacifism in International Law
- Palestine (and the Israel Question)
- Peace Treaties
- Piracy
- Political Science, International Law and
- Positivism
- Private Military and Security Companies
- Protection, Diplomatic
- Public Interest, Human Rights, and Foreign Investment
- Queering International Law
- Rational Choice Theory
- Recognition of Foreign Penal Judgments
- Refugee Law, China and
- Refugees
- Rendition, Extraterritorial Abduction, and Extraordinary R...
- Reparations
- Russian Approaches to International Law
- Sanctions, International
- Sanctions, International
- Secession
- Self-Defense
- Slavery
- Soft Law
- Space Law
- Spanish School of International Law (c. 16th and 17th Cent...
- Sports Law, International
- State of Necessity
- Superior Orders
- Taba Arbitration, The
- Teaching International Law
- Territorial Title
- Terrorism
- The 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict and International Law
- The Ottoman Empire and International Law
- Theory, Critical International Legal
- Tibet
- Tokyo Trials, The
- Torture
- Transnational Constitutionalism, Africa and
- Transnational Corruption
- Treaty Interpretation
- Ukrainian Approaches
- UN Partition Plan for Palestine and International Law, The
- UN Security Council, Women and the
- Underwater Cultural Heritage
- Unilateral Acts
- United Nations and its Principal Organs, The
- Universal Jurisdiction
- Uti Possidetis Iuris
- Vatican and the Holy See
- Victims’ Rights, International Criminal Law, and Proceedin...
- War Crimes
- Watercourses, International
- Western Sahara
- World Trade Organization Law, China and