Whither the refugee convention? : a new perspective for the 21st century

Fifty years after the adoption of the 1951 Refugee Convention, many Western governments are effectively curtailing its already limited provisions. In the words of one senior UNHCR official: 'Broadly speaking, two parallel trends have emerged, both of which have impacted negatively on the accessibility of asylum and the quality of treatment received by refugees and asylum seekers. The first has been the growth in an overly restrictive application of the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, coupled with a formidable range of obstacles erected by states to prevent legal and physical access to their territory. The second is the bewildering proliferation of alternative protection regimes of more limited duration and guaranteeing lesser rights than those contained in the 1951 Convention.'[2] This paper attempts to address the following question: Should the existing Refugee Convention be defended, or should those concerned with the treatment of the oppressed advocate a new approach, one consonant with the globalisation of economic and social life?