The Language of Protection

Abstract

The word ‘protection’ is often unclear. The lack or denial of protection is a principal feature of refugee character, and international law aims to meet that deficiency. This article traces the emergence and development of the concept of international protection, from the time of the League of Nations, through the period of the International Refugee Organization, and into the practice of States and UNHCR. The integral link between protection and human rights is identified, as are the problems which have resulted from an expansion of United Nations responsibilities in a period in which international obligations, at least at the conventional level, remained more or less static. The protection role of UNHCR is compared with that of ICRC; in both cases, one underlying rationale is humanitarian necessity, deriving either from hostilities or other valid reasons involving elements of coercion and compulsion. The protection of refugees has its origins in a human rights context, in the right of every human being to life, liberty and security, which may bejeopardized by breach of the principle of refuge. In the refugee law context, moreover, protection encompasses an unrestricted human rights competence, contingent only on a sufficient connection between rights and solutions. To be effective, protection cannot isolate itself from its objective—re-establishment of the refugee within a community—or from its implications in a wider, political and sociological dimension. The role for refugee law—and thus for this Journal—is to provide a humane and humanitarian alternative in the midst of today's political realities; one that recognizes the inherent dignity and integrity of every individual, and that offers a principled way towards solutions for those in flight