The Humanitarian Charter principles and their legal basis: principle 3
Principle 3, the principle of non-refoulement, has its basis in international refugee law.
These laws are:
- Convention on the Status of Refugees (1951)
- Protocol on the Status of Refugees (1967)
- Organisation of African Unity Convention (1969)
- Convention preventing torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (1984)
- Cartegna declaration (1984), and
- UNHCR executive committee conclusions
The two conventions in bold above are the major conventions in this area.
The 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees defines a refugee as someone who:
- is outside his/her country of origin,
- has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, and
- is unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution
Note: internally displaced persons, or IDPs, are displaced persons who have remained within their own national borders whereas refugees, by definition, are living outside their country of origin.