Throughout the world and over the centuries, societies have welcomed frightened, weary strangers, the victims of persecution and violence. This humanitarian tradition of offering sanctuary is often now played out on television screens across the globe as war and large-scale persecution produce millions of refugees and internally displaced persons. Yet even as people continue to flee from threats to their lives and freedom, governments are, for many reasons, finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile their humanitarian impulses and obligations with their domestic needs and political realities. At the start of the 21st century, protecting refugees means maintaining solidarity with the world’s most threatened, while finding answers to the challenges confronting the international system that was created to do just that.
The year 2016 marks the 65th Anniversary of the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. The Convention was a landmark in the setting of standards for the treatment of refugees. It incorporated the fundamental concepts of the refugee protection regime and has continued to remain the cornerstone of that regime to the present day. However, some critics believe that that historical document is not fit for purpose nowadays.
This essay discusses whether the international refugee protection Convention still fit for purpose or not. The paper based on various websites, as well as a number of academic studies. It is structured as four parts. The first part gives a brief background of the Convention. Second part describes the Convention as a Human Rights Treaty. Challenges of the Refuge Convention are outlined in the third part. The last part will summarise the preceding section and derive some conclusions.