Questions about Refugee
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is the legal definition of a refugee under international law?
Under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is any person with a well-founded fear of persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion who is outside their country and cannot or will not return. The 1967 Protocol confirmed this definition. Regional instruments such as the 1969 Organization of African Unity Convention and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration adopted broader definitions covering people fleeing generalized violence or events seriously disturbing public order.
What is the difference between a refugee and an internally displaced person?
A refugee has crossed an international border to seek safety in another country, while an internally displaced person (IDP) has been forced to flee their home but has not crossed into a neighboring country. IDPs do not meet the legal definition of a refugee under the 1951 Refugee Convention, the 1967 Protocol, or the 1969 Organization of African Unity Convention. The UNHCR's mandate has been gradually expanded to include providing protection and humanitarian assistance to IDPs.
Where does the word refugee come from and when did it enter the English language?
The word refugee traces back through Old French to the Latin fugere, meaning "to flee", and refugium, a place to flee back to. It entered English when French Huguenots fled to Britain in large numbers after the 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau revoked the 1598 Edict of Nantes. The word originally meant "one seeking asylum" and shifted around 1916 to mean "one fleeing home", first applied to civilians in Flanders escaping fighting in World War I.
What is non-refoulement and why does it matter for refugee protection?
Non-refoulement is the right not to be returned to a place of persecution and is considered the foundation of international refugee law. It is grounded in Article 33 of the 1951 Refugee Convention, Article 3 of the Convention against Torture, and Articles 6, 7, and 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The prohibition is absolute: states cannot invoke national security or public order to justify returning a person to a place where they face torture, persecution, or serious harm, and the principle also prohibits indirect chain transfers to third countries where the person would be in danger.
What mental health problems do refugees commonly face?
Post-traumatic stress disorder and depression are the most documented mental health conditions among refugees. A meta-study by the psychiatry department of Oxford University at Warneford Hospital, drawing on twenty surveys of 6,743 adult refugees from seven countries, found that 9% were diagnosed with PTSD and 5% with major depression. Refugees resettled in Western countries may be about ten times more likely to have PTSD than age-matched general populations. PTSD was diagnosed in 34.1% of Palestinian children studied, and 28.3% of Bosnian refugee women in Sweden showed PTSD symptoms three or four years after arrival.
When was the UNHCR established and what is its mandate?
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on the 14th of December 1950 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Its mandate is to protect refugees at the request of a government or the United Nations and to find durable solutions including return, local integration, and third country resettlement. Its mandate covers all refugees except Palestinian refugees who fled the current state of Israel between 1947 and 1949, who are assisted by the separate United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).