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The United Nations has come up with specific laws, mechanisms and resolutions that set standards for the protection and promotion of the rights of refugees and internally displaced. The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees defines a refugee and the specific rights that should be guaranteed by states. As this convention covered only people displaced due to World War II, and more specifically people displaced by events before January 1, 1951, in 1967 the UN adopted Protocol 1 Relating to the Status of Refugees. The protocol is an important instrument that expanded the coverage of the 1951 Convention to include all kinds of refugees, thus removing the original convention’s geographical and time limitations. To date, the 1951 Convention has been the guiding document of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in its efforts to help and protect refugees worldwide. In 1969, the African region also came up with Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, and later on in 1984, Latin America drew up the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees. Article 1 of the 1951 Convention defines the refugee as: "A person who is outside his/her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution." The 1951 Convention guaranteed basic human rights that refugees should enjoy -- at a minimum equivalent to the rights enjoyed by foreign nationals -- but ideally equivalent to rights of the citizens of the host country. These rights include freedom of religion and movement, the right to work and education, and access to travel documents. The principle of "non-refoulment", or the right of the refugee not to be forcibly returned to the country of origin where she or he faces persecution, is a crucial provision in the convention. The convention also emphasized that the refugee crisis is an international concern that necessitates international action and cooperation among states. In the same way that the UNHCR and other UN organizations have used the 1951 convention to guide them in their mandate to protect the rights and alleviate the suffering of refugees, governments are also expected to follow suit by creating their own refugee policy and obligations. One of the convention’s serious flaws is its non-consideration of sex or gender as a standard that would define a refugee. However, persecution based on gender became more widely recognized in mid-1980s, during the initial years of the United Nations Decade for Women, prompting the UNHCR to initiate various activities to protect women refugees. Importantly, the UN developed several policies pertaining to women refugees: 1985 Executive Committee’s Conclusion No. 39 on Refugee Women and International Protection 1987 Executive Committee’s General Conclusions on International Protection, which noted the special needs of women refugees and the need for reliable information and statistics on women refugees to better assess their situation 1988 Executive Committee adoption of the conclusion entitled "Refugee Women," which further elaborated on the vulnerability of women refugees and emphasized the need to involve women as both beneficiaries and agents of programs, as well as the need to develop training modules and public information campaigns to raise awareness on the plight of women refugees 1989 conclusion which repeated concerns on physical safety and sexual exploitation and the need for female workers to facilitate participation of women refugees the UNHCR Policy for Refugee Women, which mainstreams the concerns of women refugees in all aspects of the agency’s program planning and implementation Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women issued in July 1991. Other standards that guide the UNHCR’s work on women refugees are contained in the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women (1985) and the Beijing Platform for Action (1995). In 1984, the European Parliament approved what the UNHCR called a revolutionary resolution that asked members states to consider giving refugee status to women who flee their country to escape punishments for committing religious or social taboos. This move was followed by a general conclusion in 1995 that called for the consideration of sexual violence or gender-related persecution as bases for determining a woman’s refugee status. In 1993, Canada released its guidelines on "Women Refugee Claimants fearing Gender-Related Persecution." Other countries such as the United States and Australia have also created their own guidelines on this. Another major limitation of the 1951 Convention is its non-protection of those internally displaced. Since the convention pertains only to the rights of refugees, that is, people who crossed an international border to seek safety, IDPs or people who fled from their own communities but end up still within the boundaries of the country are not protected. As already mentioned, aside from non-coverage of the rights of IDPs by any international law, IDPs face more severe difficulties especially when the agent of persecution is the state itself. Even the UNHCR admits that out of an estimated total number of IDPs of 20 to 25 million, it is only able to assist a few million. As a response to the particularly difficult situation of the internally displaced and to contribute to their safety, the UNHCR issued its Guiding Principles on the Internally Displaced, which affirmed the human rights of IDPs and called on states and international actors to promote and protect these rights, and extend assistance. The UNHCR has also prepared the draft paper "Interception of Asylum-Seekers and Refugees: The International Framework and Recommendations for a Comprehensive Approach" (EC/50/SC/CCRP.17). However, this draft paper received criticism from international refugee human rights groups for inappropriately seeking to "balance a state’s concern for the control of irregular migration, smuggling and trafficking, against [the state’s] obligation to protect refugees" (Wendy Young, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, U.S. Committee for Refugees). Because refugees and asylum-seekers are often victimized by smuggling and various forms of trafficking, rights organizations stress that state interception should "not criminalize refugee flight or deny access to refugee determination procedures". Another problem with interception is the propensity to focus on nationals stereotyped by state authorities as threats to national security. The International Criminal Court, which became operational on July1, 2003, is a groundbreaking international mechanism that is a powerful vehicle for promoting the rights of refugees and IDPs by bringing to justice individual perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Crimes against humanity include systematic "deportation or forcible transfer of population", "gender specific crimes such as rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity", and "persecution against any identifiable group" based on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, or gender identity. Aside from being an international instrument of justice, the ICC is also hailed as a mechanism that promotes a culture of respect for civilians caught in armed conflict.
Other important international human rights instruments that remain relevant to the protection and rights of refugee and internally displaced are: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 1948) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (23 March 1976) International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (3 January 1976) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women (18 December 1979) Convention on the Rights of the Child (2 September 1990) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (4 January 1969) Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment (26 June 1987) Geneva Convention No. IV: Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War (21 October 1950) Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) (8 June 1977) Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II) (8 June 1977) Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (6 June 1960) Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict (GA Res. 3318, 14 December 1974) Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (25 July 1951) Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery (30 April 1957) American Convention on Human Rights (22 November 1969) The Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Sanction and Eradicate Violence against Women African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (21 October 1986)
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