Another one who won't understand the strictures and obligations of the 1951 Refugee Convention, despite being pointed in the right direction. Perhaps if it's laid out if front of them?
The 1951 Convention consolidates previous international instruments relat-ing to refugees and provides the most comprehensive codification of the rights of refugees at the international level. In contrast to earlier internation-al refugee instruments, which applied to specific groups of refugees, the 1951 Convention endorses a single definition of the term “refugee” in Article 1.
The emphasis of this definition is on the protection of persons from politi-
cal or other forms of persecution. A refugee, according to the Convention,
is someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin
owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.
The Convention is both a status and rights-based instrument and is under-
pinned by a number of fundamental principles, most notably non-discrim-
ination, non-penalization and non-refoulement. Convention provisions, for example, are to be applied without discrimination as to race, religion or coun-try of origin. Developments in international human rights law also reinforce the principle that the Convention be applied without discrimination as to sex, age, disability, sexuality, or other prohibited grounds of discrimination.
The Convention further stipulates that, subject to specific exceptions, refu-
gees should not be penalized for their illegal entry or stay. This recognizes that the seeking of asylum can require refugees to breach immigration rules.
Prohibited penalties might include being charged with immigration or crim-inal offences relating to the seeking of asylum, or being arbitrarily detained purely on the basis of seeking asylum. Importantly, the Convention contains various safeguards against the expulsion of refugees. The principle of non-refoulement is so fundamental that no reservations or derogations may be made to it. It provides that no one shall expel or return (“refouler”) a refugee against his or her will, in any manner whatsoever, to a territory where he or she fears threats to life or freedom.
Finally, the Convention lays down basic minimum standards for the treat-
ment of refugees, without prejudice to States granting more favourable treat-ment. Such rights include access to the courts, to primary education, to work, and the provision for documentation, including a refugee travel document in passport form. Most States parties to the Convention issue this document, which has become as widely accepted as the former “Nansen passport”, an identity document for refugees devised by the first Commissioner for Refu-gees, Fridtjof Nansen, in 1922.