70th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention: the Council of Europe and the international protection of refugees
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text
adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of
the Assembly, on 26 November 2021 (see Doc. 15396, report of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and
Displaced Persons, rapporteur: Lord Leslie Griffiths).
1. In the year of the 70th anniversary
of the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
(the 1951 Refugee Convention), the Parliamentary Assembly welcomes
ongoing initiatives aimed at consolidating and making more effective
the international protection of refugees and asylum seekers, and warns
against certain negative tendencies.
2. The Assembly is highly concerned by the increasing number
of refugees and asylum seekers in the world, including, most recently,
from Afghanistan. At the end of 2020, there were 82.4 million people
displaced worldwide with 20.7 million refugees under the mandate
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). An
estimated 34 million (42%) of the 82.4 million forcibly displaced
persons are children below the age of 18.
3. The Assembly is concerned about the increasing frequency of
expulsions and pushbacks of refugees and asylum seekers at Europe’s
borders, and recalls that the 1951 Refugee Convention and the European Convention
on Human Rights (ETS No. 5) require States to protect the rights
of people to seek asylum and ensure protection from refoulement, even if they enter
a country irregularly. The Assembly emphasises the importance of
preserving access to territories and asylum procedures and calls
on Council of Europe member States to uphold their existing commitments
to refugee protection by admitting asylum seekers at their borders and
enabling the submission of asylum applications.
4. The Assembly also warns against the tendency to criminalise
solidarity with refugees and life-saving activities. It deplores
the fact that people who have helped asylum seekers and refugees
have been investigated, charged and, in some cases, convicted just
for providing assistance in the saving of lives, for monitoring
human rights or for standing in solidarity with migrants and asylum
seekers.
5. The Assembly calls upon national parliaments to prevent misuse
of anti-human trafficking laws to curb solidarity and humanitarian
acts intended to protect the rights of refugees and asylum seekers.
It is convinced that saving lives is not a crime, that feeding starving
people is not a crime and that providing shelter to families in
need is not a crime. These activities are based on the fundamental
values that the Council of Europe was set up to defend.
6. The Assembly emphasises, therefore, the urgent need to strengthen
Council of Europe member States’ commitment to upholding fundamental
rights of those who flee persecution for reasons specified in the
1951 Refugee Convention. Marking the 70th anniversary of the 1951
Refugee Convention, the Assembly underscores the need to enhance
the international protection of refugees and asylum seekers. The
Assembly, therefore, calls upon member States’ parliaments to ensure
full support for UN-led initiatives for the protection of refugees
and asylum seekers, to support the relevant Council of Europe actions
and to take specific actions at national level, as follows:
6.1 with regard to ensuring full
support for UN-led initiatives, the Assembly:
6.1.1 recognises
the importance and achievements of the 1951 Refugee Convention and
its 1967 Protocol and recommits itself to the core values at the
heart of these instruments – including non-refoulement,
non-penalisation and non-discrimination, and ensuring access to
international protection for those who need it, among other human
rights;
6.1.2 recognises that, while circumstances may change in the
light of political, social, environmental and cultural developments,
great care should be taken to ensure that nothing weakens or diminishes
respect for the convention’s core values or dampens the spirit of
liberality and co-operation which lies at the heart of its provisions;
6.1.3 reaffirms its commitment to the role and mandate of the
UNHCR and honours its achievements over the years while recognising
the scale of the problems facing it, and the international community,
at the present time. It understands how political instability across
the globe, the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate
change crisis are likely to see the number of people seeking refuge
and international protection increase. It resolves to work hand in
hand with the UNHCR as it works with States to address these paramount
issues;
6.1.4 while recognising the fact that governments must implement
the principles of the 1951 Refugee Convention in the context of
their own domestic law, urges all States to ensure that, in all
such cases, they align themselves with the interpretation of the
convention put forward by the UNHCR;
6.1.5 recognises the priority established by the UNHCR to support
programmes that give refugees the opportunity to become self-reliant,
wherever possible. It welcomes the fact that, increasingly, proposals
to achieve this are being fostered by community-sponsored initiatives
and recommends that member States provide their full support to
these;
6.1.6 welcomes the widespread support elicited by the UN Global
Compact on Refugees and calls upon national parliaments to actively
promote its implementation. This is a programme which offers a framework
for more predictable and equitable responsibility sharing in the treatment
of refugees and is directly in line with the major thrust of the
1951 Refugee Convention. The Assembly looks forward to receiving
the report from the high-level meeting to be held in December 2021
and to scrutinising and assessing what happens afterwards;
6.2 with regard to supporting relevant Council of Europe action,
the Assembly:
6.2.1 recalls that the Council of Europe
has extensive experience in addressing human rights issues, including
the protection of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, in
accordance with international human rights standards set by the
1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and other relevant
international treaties;
6.2.2 notes that recent Council of Europe action plans formulated
in the migration sphere, which have focused on the protection of
children and vulnerable persons, are set to conclude in 2025. For
the period following that date, as part of a succession plan, the
Council of Europe, through its Special Representative of the Secretary
General on Migration and Refugees, should consider aligning itself
with the UNHCR and its “Strategy on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways”.
This strategy has set target figures for resettlement of one million
refugees and two million others through complementary pathways such
as family reunification or labour mobility schemes – targets to
be achieved by 2028. A new pan-European action plan to support resettlement
and enhance refugees’ self-reliance in the period from 2025 to 2028,
in concert with work already being done by UNHCR on the subject,
would effectively address a vital aspect of efforts being made for
the protection of refugees;
6.2.3 recommends that all relevant expert bodies and intergovernmental
committees give priority attention to refugee and migrant issues,
enhancing co-ordination on this matter, in close co-operation with
the UNHCR. This will require co-ordinating responses from across
a number of fields (education, health, access to employment, legal
status and housing, for example) to meet the needs of refugees and
asylum seekers;
6.3 With regard to the call for taking specific action at
national level, the Assembly:
6.3.1 notes that the 1951
Refugee Convention was the work of States working together internationally.
But it is the governments of member States which must put its principles
and values into practice. Each State will do this within its own
domestic law and this will inevitably lead to variations in the
specific means of doing so. The Assembly recognises that the efficient
and expeditious return of persons found not to be in need of international
protection is key to maintaining the integrity of asylum systems
in Europe and to the international protection system as a whole.
The Assembly urges, therefore, the governments of all Council of
Europe member States to put in place efficient asylum procedures
that maintain fairness safeguards and adhere to international law,
including the principle of non-refoulement.
All who lay claim to asylum, whatever the outcome, should be treated
humanely and with respect;
6.3.2 urges parliamentarians across member States to press their
governments to offer support to countries of origin from which refugees
and migrants move towards Europe. Development aid should be offered
in order to build capacity, achieve political stability, strengthen protection
of human rights and allow people to enjoy economic improvement in
these countries, as well as in countries which host large refugee
populations. This would allow for a focus on the root causes of
migration and displacement, and go some way towards destroying the
“business models” of those involved in people-smuggling;
6.3.3 underscores the key role that needs to be played by members
of parliaments, as outlined in
Resolution 2379 (2021) “Role of
parliaments in implementing the United Nations global compacts for
migrants and refugees”. The Assembly reaffirms its recent agreements
on this matter and reiterates the opportunities open to parliamentarians
in their various functions – representative, legislative and oversight
– and also in the realm of international diplomacy;
6.3.4 stresses that Assembly members, acting in their capacity
as members of their own respective parliaments, should become catalysts
and/or multipliers for the task of raising awareness of, and assisting
with the implementation of, the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967
Protocol.
7. Finally, the Assembly recognises that the UNHCR cannot exist
without the support and political will of States Parties to the
1951 Refugee Convention. The fact that it has achieved so much in
the last seventy years is because of States’ commitment and generosity,
and the Assembly hopes that all Council of Europe member States
will continue to support the UNHCR for the next seventy years.
