Informational Components of Refugee Status Determination

Abstract

Over 60 million people are displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence, and human rights violations. The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and 1967 Protocol (“Refugee Convention”) created a legal framework for refugees, defined as any person who, “owing to a 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 to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.” 1 States who are parties to one or both of these Conventions (“party states”) are incorporated into a complex legal framework comprised of additional conventions such as the Convention Against Torture, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on Statelessness, regional conventions and instruments, and national legislation that together form the international refugee regime. The cornerstone of the Refugee Convention is the refugee status determination process (“RSD”). While a refugee who is present on the territory of a state is protected by the principle of non-refoulement (that a refugee will not be sent back to a place where his life or freedom could be threatened), it is through the presentment to an official authority and a refugee status adjudication process that refugees can more fully access the rights states are mandated to provide under the Refugee Convention.