So why do we even need a Refugee Convention?
Well every country in the world has certain
responsibilities towards their citizens and others living in their territory.
This is basically what Human Rights Law is
about.
Sadly though, in many countries of the world,
people aren't able to access those rights.
Sometimes they are extremely badly treated in those countries, they are discriminated
against, or there are people actively trying to harm them.
That's where Refugee Law steps in.
So Refugee Law essentially provides protection
for people whose own governments aren't able to afford it to them, either because they're
unwilling to protect them or because the government itself is perpetrating harm on that person.
Under international law there is a right to
seek asylum from persecution and other forms of serious harm.
So when in Australia we hear things like,
asylum seekers are illegals, that's actually inaccurate because asylum seekers are exercising
a right they have which is set out in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and is also part of broader International Law, to seek asylum from persecution and to
receive protection in another country.
The Refugee Convention in its long title,
is about the status of refugees.
So what is that status?
Well essentially, it's a series of rights that refugees are entitled to.
Things like the right to housing, the right
to work, the right to access education, the right to social security and so on.
Many of these rights are what we would call
economic or social rights.
Additionally, refugees also have rights in
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and of course, the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In other words, under broader Human Rights
Law.
You might also wonder when I use different
terms like asylum seeker and refugee, what those different terms mean.
A refugee is somebody who has essentially
been recognised by a government as meeting the refugee definition, that is, as having
a fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or
membership of a particular social group.
Now of course, a person might meet that definition
even though a government hasn't recognised it, but of course they won't be able to access
the protection they have an entitlement to as a refugee until a government does recognise
it.
So we call people in that process of trying
to prove that they're a refugee, an asylum seeker.
In other words, they are seeking protection,
they are seeking asylum.
Most of the Refugee Convention rights are
in relation to people already recognised as refugees but there are a couple of very important
ones that also apply to asylum seekers.
First, the principle of non-refoulement.
We can't return people who might be refugees
to serious forms of harm.
So asylum seekers benefit from that protection.
Secondly, asylum seekers who access a country
without the requisite passport or visa requirements, they also have that protection under Article
31 of the Convention which says that countries can't penalise someone for entering without
those documents if they are in search of protection.
Another very important one is the principle of non-discrimination.
So countries are not entitled to discriminate
between asylum seekers based on things like their mode of arrival or their nationality.
At a minimum, refugees need to be treated
the same way as other foreigners, and that's according to certain rights set out in the
Refugee Convention.
But the Refugee Convention goes further and
so there are some entitlements that refugees get at the same level of citizens and over
time, refugees' rights should increase so that they do match those of citizens of the
country.
In Australia, when a refugee is granted a
protection visa, they in essence become entitled to the rights of a permanent resident and
then are set on the path to citizenship.
Of course, there are reciprocal obligations.
So refugees as members of a community, are
obliged to respect the laws of the country in which they find themselves, so in Australia
of course, refugees like any other person in the country, must abide by our domestic
laws.
Article 1C of the Refugee Convention says
that refugee status can end if there are fundamental changes in the circumstances which led to
the need for refugee protection in the first place.
So that envisages a fundamental change of
circumstances in the country of origin.
However most countries provide protection
to refugees on a more permanent basis and this is for a number of reasons.
First, you can imagine the bureaucratic inefficiency of having to reassess asylum claims over and
over again and yet that's what Australia's current temporary protection visa regime will
require.
Secondly, and perhaps more fundamentally, you can imagine the psychological disturbance
created if you never know whether you are here and being protected for a short period
or permanently.