| Today,in the 21 st century,there is still an increased focus on refugee problem for the international society.The world were shocked by the picture that a Syrian toddler drowned on the beach of Turkey in September,2015.People began to focus their attention on the simmering of European refugee problem.Millions of Syrian people become refugees because of the Libya's civil war,which bricks out in 2011.They seek asylum in Europe after passing through Mediterranean.According to the statistics of UNHCR,in its sixth year today,the Libya's civil war has caused over four million Syrian refugees who escape to neighbor states and north Africa.In order to deal with the rigorous refugee problem,it is urgent to reform the international refugee protection system.Protection for refugee has been a long-discussed problem.In 1921,the League of Nations established Russia's refugee agency to specifically solve refugee protection problem.Nansen,the high commissioner,created Nansen Passport to identify refugees.In 1931,the League of Nations set up the EU International Nansen Refugee Agency.The outbreak of Second World War contributed to the establishment of the International Organization for Migration,which was finally dissolved in 1952 due to the Cold War.In 1949,General Assembly set up U.N.High Commissioner for Refugee to take over the task of International Organization for Migration.And nowadays,UNHCR plays a huge role in the international protection of refugees.The definition of refugee is a key issue in the international protection of refugee.What we often refer to as refugee is the definition stipulated in both the 1951 Convention of the Status of Refugees and 1967 refugees Protocol,which is known as “conventional refugee”.Paragraph 1 article 1 of 1951 Convention of the Status of Refugees defines a person refugee if he/she(1)as been-considered a refugee under the arrangement of 12 May 1926 and 30 January 1982 or under the Convention of 28 October 1933 and 10 February 1938,the Protocol of 14 September 1939 or the Constitution of the International Refugee Organization;(2)because of issues happening before 1 January 1951,owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race,religion,nationality,membership of particular social group or political opinion,is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or,owing to such fear,is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country;or who,not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events,is unable or,owing the such fear,is unwilling to return to it.1967 Protocol advanced the convention by removing the expression of “before 1 January 1951” and “as a result of such events”.To sum up,refugee as stipulated in 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol is he/she owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for either of five reasons of “race,religion,nationality,membership of particular social group or political opinion”.The so-called “Conventional refugee” refers to political refugee.The definition of refugee stipulated in 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol has been generally accepted by states.In order to better protect refugees in practice,there are “Constitutional Refugee” and refugee defined by regional documents.Constitutional Refugee refers to people who is determined as refugee by UNHCR Statute or authorized by General Assembly.1969 Convention on Refugee Problems in Africa and Catagena Declaration of Refugee define refugee to include a broader category of “external aggression,occupation,foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part of the whole of his country of origin or nationality” and “generalized violence,foreign aggression,internal conflict,mass human rights violation or events seriously disturbing public order”.Though these definition were accepted by states,they were not adopted by 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol.Thus,it is important to broaden the definition of refugee.International organizations,for example the UNCHR and states are working together to cope with refugee problem,however,with the changes of the times and thecontinuing threat of terrorism,the international protection of refugee becomes struggling.In 2014,an organization named Islamic State of Iraq and al Shams(shorted for “ISIS”)draws the attention of the whole international society.In November 2015,a series of terrorist attacks happened in Paris.In 2016,serial terrorism blasts attack Brussels Airport and subway stations.The issues of refugee protection is aggravated by the penetrating of terrorists into refugees.For country of asylum,it needs money and resources to accept refugees under huge economic and political pressure.The infiltration of terrorists make states,more hesitate to accept and protect refugees,and some European states even reject accepting refugees.In 4th March 2017,Iraqi soldiers held refugees at gun point to force them take off to show their innocence from terrorists.This reminds us the confusion between refugees and terrorists influence the stability of the world and it is a crucial new issue.Thus,terrorism has a great influence on the development of refugee protection.In order to better protect refugees,it is necessary to identify terrorists and deny them as refugees.The United Nations Security Council makes 37 resolutions regarding anti-terrorism.Resolution No.1373,No.1377 and No.1624 make it clear that terrorism is a kind of crime which shall be sanctioned by states.Paragraph 6 Article 1of the 1951 Convention stipulates “exception clause”,which says whoever committed “a crime against peace,a war crime,or a crime against humanity”,“a serious non-political crime” or “act contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations” shall not be defined as refugee and receive protection.Though the “exception clause” does not explicitly mention the word of “terrorism”,it is reasonable to deny a terrorist as refugee based on the clause because its content is connected with the meaning of terrorism.From 1936 to 1982,there is more than 109 kinds of definition of terrorism,however none of them is generally accepted.Although lacking the definition of terrorism,terrorist can still be rejected to be given the position of refugee.The act of terrorism is various,including traditional crime as explosion,slaughter and non-traditional crimes as cyber-crime,thus it is not necessary to define terrorism to a definitive kinds of acts.Under the international protection of refugee,once an act has the possibility of being a terrorism act and meets the requirement of the “exception clause”,the person who committed such acts can be denied as refugees.Today,UNHCR has been set up in its 66 th year.As a long-standing international organization for refugee protection,UNHCR contributes a lot to refugee protection.As a branch of United Nations,it aims to make sure everyone has the right to seekasylum in other countries and coordinate actions all around world to protect refugees.Since its establishment,every state and region benefits from UNHCR's rescue.However,tt is undeniable that UHNCR still has its limitations in the protection of refugees.First,the primary function of UNHCR is to supervise the implementation of 1951 Convention and it has no executive force.Once a state refuses to fulfill its protection obligation for refugees,UNHCR has no power of sanction.Thus,it is urgent to improve the position of UNHCR and endow more powers to promote the protection for refugees.Second,UNHCR depends on every states and the United Nations for raising funds.According to UNHCR,though the funds received has been increased since its establishment,the funds received are always badly deficient as is expected.As statistics show,from 2012 to 2016,there are huge gap in funds between what UNHCR has received and what it expected to receive.In 2015,the gap was huge than ever before and only 40% of the expected budget was actually realized.Thus,the establishment of distribution mechanism is necessary.Every states shall be bind by the mechanism to undertake its obligation to donate.Concerning the international protection of refugees,focus is on the responsibility and liability of the receiving countries.But actually,refugees become refugees because of the source countries' ignorance of human rights.Refugees are people who are forced to leave their own countries due to the lack of protection from these countries.Thus,it is necessary to define the liability of the source countries.Once liability is defined,conduct can be restrained and refugee crisis can be relieved. |
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