The refugees are human being and the notion of refugee rights and human rights is inextricably linked in the sense that both involve common purpose of safeguarding, elevating and protecting human dignity.

The global crisis of refugees and their protection has always been a daunting challenge for the world community for quite a long time because of multifaceted complications of this humanitarian issue.    

Many attempts based on discussions together with existing international and regional legal as well as institutional framework have been designed and adopted to drill pathways for effective protection of this vulnerable group and search for sustainable solution to their plights.

The ongoing political culture of Bangladesh is the ramification and culmination of blame game theory and of being reactive to a great extent and while the stand of the country towards international law and international relation especially for the protection of rights of Rohingya refugees promoting regional peace, security and fraternity is well acclaimed before the world community with few exceptional criticisms.     

The idea of worldwide protection of refugees involving a series of legal and institutional mechanism evolved gradually. For tackling immediate refugee crisis as a repercussion of World War II, the UN General Assembly through a resolution 319 A (IV) of 3 December 1949, decided to establish the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).   

Consequently, UNHCR was heralded as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly on January 1, 1951, for three years initially. It was the replacement of the International Refugee Organization (IRO) established by the UN General Assembly in 1946. It took over the mammoth task of UN Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA) to register, protect, resettle and repatriate refugees from 30 countries, especially from the Eastern Europe.

The mandate of UNHCR has routinely extended until 2003 but with a resolution of the UN General Assembly at the end of 2003, the time limit has been lifted.       

The task of UNHCR is to provide international protection to refugees includes prevention of non refoulement, assistance in processing and screening of asylum seekers, offering legal counsel and aid, promoting arrangement for the physical safely of refugees, helping governments to bring holistic and durable solution and facilitating the voluntary repatriation of refugees to the country of origin, or their reintegration within new national communities or resettlement to third countries.

These functions are solely humanitarian, social and non-political involving multilateral approach to handle global challenges affiliating to non citizens like refugees, returnees, internally displaced people (IDPs), stateless persons and other persons of concerns.

A new domain of environmental especially climate refugees has been added to the existing queue.           

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948 as per Article 14 has mandated everyone to seek and enjoy asylum in other countries due to persecution.

International legal instruments have been developed demarcating the standard for the treatment of refugees.

The most important ones are the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol entering into force on October 4, 1967 and these two documents determine who is refugee, their rights and legal obligations of the state parties.  

The 1951 Convention as a landmark in setting standards for the healing of refugee crisis was adopted as an outcome of recommendation by the then newly established UN Commission on Human Rights of 1946.

And 1967 Protocol has taken off the geographical limitation of the Convention. Initially, 26 states were the signatories to the Convention and now 147 states are the parties of both the Convention and Protocol.  

According to the 1951 Convention, state parties were concerned to focus only on the existing refugee problems and necessarily not to take over obligations for the future resulting two major limitations namely the 1 January 1951 dateline and the geographical limitation only for Europe.

The Convention defines the term refugee as any person who as a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of her or his nationality and unable or unwilling to return to it. However, the 1967 Protocol removed temporal restriction and geographical barrier from the Convention paving the way for its application universally.    

Moreover, the regional instruments which have significantly contributed in protecting refugees include Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, 1969 and the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees in Latin America, 1984.

The 1969 African Convention has broadened the definition of refugees referring to cover every person who owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or entire of his country of origin or nationality, is compelled to leave his/ her place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in another place outside his country of origin or nationality.

Like African Convention, the Cartagena Declaration has also widened the definition of refugees denoting refugees are persons who have fled their country because their lives, safety or freedom have been threatened by generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order.

Though, the Cartagena Declaration is not binding on states but the Latin American States generally apply it in practice and some through incorporation of its principles into their domestic legislations.  

In Europe, the Council of Europe has adopted several regional instruments. These includes European Agreement on the Abolition of Visas for Refugees, 1959, Asylum to Persons in Danger of Persecution, 1967, European Agreement on Transfer of Responsibility of Refugees, 1980, Recommendation on the Harmonization of National Procedure Relating to Asylum, 1981, Recommendation on the Protection of Persons Satisfying the Criteria in the Geneva Convention who are not Formerly Refugees, 1984 and Dublin Convention, 1990.

There are some other Conventions and Declarations contain provisions on refugee rights. The Fourth Geneva Convention Relating to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949 aims to protect civilian victims and also covers refugees and displaced persons.

The 1977 Additional Protocol of the Convention stipulates that refugees and stateless persons shall be protected persons under Part I and Part III of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1954 and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 1961 also relate to refugees and they shall not be deprived of their nationality on racial, ethnic, religious or political grounds. The UN Declaration on Territorial Asylum of 1967 provides a series of fundamental principles in relation to territorial asylum.

Another UN Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict is of 1974.

There are many legal documents and institutional framework but the protection of refugees around the world is in pity condition reminding us all a concerted effort for a durable and holistic solution from all states especially the wealthy states.

The Writer is a Senior Lecturer of the Department of Law and Justice, Southeast University.