"Rights Based Refuge, the Potential of the 1951 Convention and the Need for Authoritative Interpretation"

Non-refoulement is the central part of the protection of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. It is true that Article 1, a definition, is the passport to Convention refugee status and the expectation of naturalization. However, this affects only a fraction of the world's refugees. Non-refoulement, and the form of protection it brings, affects 10-15 million refugees. Although it is now recognized that non-refoulement has been reinforced by other human rights treaties, such as the Convention against Torture, (CAT), the full impact has not been grasped. Non-discrimination obligations from Article 26 of the 1966 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, (CCPR) can limit differentiations in the allocating of rights and benefits. A review of rights based refuge is timely because the content, what is enjoyed beyond the refuge itself, is highly variable and relates, in part, to ambiguities in key terms allocating rights in the Convention. However, the refugees involved may be persons protected from expulsion not only by the Convention, but also by the newer human rights treaties. So the content problems also relate to a lack of interpretation of human rights treaties as these apply to persons protected from expulsion. Throughout, this essay shows that authoritative interpretation of treaties is needed to make the promise of the rights based refuge a reality for refugees.