Convention And Protocol Relating To The Status Of Refugees

convention and p ro t o c o l r e l at i n g t o t h e

s tat u s o f
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Text of the 1951 Convention
Relating to the Status of Refugees

Text of the 1967 Protocol
Relating to the Status of Refugees

Resolution 2198 ( XXI ) adopted by the
United Nations General Assembly

with an
Introductory Note by the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

convention

and

protocol

1

introductory note

by the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
( UNHCR )

Grounded in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of human rights
1948, which recognizes the right of persons to seek asylum from persecution in other countries, the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of
Refugees, adopted in 1951, is the centrepiece of international refugee protection today.(1) The Convention entered into force on 22 April 1954, and it has been subject to only one amendment in the form of a 1967 Protocol, which removed the geographic and temporal limits of the 1951 Convention. (2) The
1951 Convention, as a post-Second World War instrument, was originally limited in scope to persons fleeing events occurring before 1 January 1951 and within Europe. The 1967 Protocol removed these limitations and thus gave the Convention universal coverage. It has since been supplemented by refugee and subsidiary protection regimes in several regions,(3) as well as via the progressive development of international human rights law.
(1) United Nations General Assembly resolution 429(V) of 14 December 1950, available at http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3b00f08a27.html (2) The Convention enabled States to make a declaration when becoming party, according to which the words “events occurring before 1 January 1951” are