UNHCR Protection Manual

A number of asylum countries have in place administrative or legislative mechanisms for regularising the stay of persons who are not recognised as refugees, but for whom return is not possible. While UNHCR welcomes these mechanisms, lack of harmonizarion has led to a proliferation of statuses granted to a wide range of persons for a variety of reasons with varying standards of treatment. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion by: i) identifying the appropriate beneficiaries; ii) sketching the applicable legal framework and the nature of protection provided by States; and iii) suggesting standards of treatment and procedural mechanisms which, from UNHCR’s perspective, would be most appropriate.

The immediate goal of this note is to elucidate contemporary issues in the interpretation of the terms of Article 1 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, taking into account recent academic and jurisprudential developments. It is hoped that its contents will be useful in a number of contexts, not least in the efforts currently underway in Europe to harmonise understanding of the refugee definition.

On the application of Article 33 of the 1951 Convention and its relationship with Article 3(1) of the Convention against Torture; restriction of Article 33(2) of the 1951 Convention by the prohibition of refoulement to torture in Article 3(1) of the Convention against Torture; the test for applying the "danger to the security of the country" exception in Article 33(2) of the 1951 Convention.