What does the UN 1951 Refugee Convention say – and can you change it?

Published

12 months ago

September 26, 2023

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The home secretary has suggested the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention needs updating to stop “simply being gay or a woman” being a reason for people to claim asylum in the UK.

In a speech to a right-wing thinktank in New York today, Suella Braverman will ask whether the 1951 convention is “fit for our modern age” or “whether it is in need of reform”.

She cites the rising number of refugees across the world and those arriving in the UK in small boats as proof we “now live in a completely different time” to when the convention was written.

Here Sky News looks at what the convention says and how difficult it would be to change.

What does it say?

The UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was originally signed by 28 countries, including the UK, in Geneva in July 1951.

As a “post-Second World War instrument” it was “originally limited in scope to persons fleeing events occurring before 1 January 1951 and within Europe”, namely the Holocaust.

But it has since expanded and updated with more than 100 countries now signatories.

It defines what a refugee is, what rights they have and what obligations states have to them when they arrive.

According to the convention, a refugee 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”.

With the development of international human rights law, the convention says it should now be applied “without discrimination as to sex, age, disability, sexuality, or other prohibited grounds of discrimination”.

Analysis:
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Braverman’s rhetoric risks backfiring

It gives refugees the right to “non-discrimination, non-penalisation and non-refoulement”.

The “non-penalisation” section means refugees “should not be penalised for their illegal entry or stay” in the country they flee to and recognises that “seeking asylum can require refugees to breach immigration rules”.

The “non-refoulement” part bans countries from “expelling or returning a refugee against his or her will, in any manner whatsoever, to a territory where he or she fears threats to life or freedom”.

According to the convention, countries are also obliged to give asylum seekers access to “courts, primary education, work, and documentation, including a refugee travel document in passport form”.

The convention does not apply to refugees who benefit from another specific UN or equivalent humanitarian programme, for example people from Palestine who fall under the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

What does Suella Braverman want?

The home secretary says that while after the Second World War, the convention conferred protection on around two million refugees, some data analysis suggests that in the current context, this number is now 780 million.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) puts the original figure at one million and the current one at 35.3 million, as of the end of 2022.

Suella Braverman argues that the provisions on having a “well-founded fear of persecution” have been watered down to just “discrimination”.

She says this has created an asylum system where “simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin is sufficient to qualify for protection”.

Can you change the convention?

The original 1951 convention was updated in 1967 to remove the “geographical and temporal limitations” and give it “universal coverage”.

Since then it has been “supplemented” according to the “progressive development of international human rights law”.

Although the convention itself hasn’t changed – the way courts have interpreted it to rule on cases has – providing new case law for their own and other countries.

Natasha Tsangarides, associate director of advocacy for the charity Freedom from Torture, says Ms Braverman is wrong to say case law now defines a refugee as facing discrimination – not persecution.

“That’s incorrect, there’s no case law to support that,” she told Sky News.

“People, whether they are LGBT or not, need a ‘well-founded fear of persecution’ to be able to seek asylum.”

On the growing numbers of migrants globally, which some estimate could reach a quarter of a billion due to the climate crisis and other conflicts, Ms Tsangarides stresses that isn’t the issue.

“It’s correct to say that more people are on the move than they were before. But of those displaced people, two thirds stay in their country and just move to a different part.

“Of that third who leave, seven out of ten stay in their region, which means only a small fraction of them come to Europe and try to seek asylum in the UK.

“The asylum system is in chaos, not because more people are coming, but because the Home Office has been presided over by chaotic governments that have neglected the system.”

Immigration lawyer Harjap Bhangal also says changing the convention or the way it’s interpreted by judges and Home Office decision makers won’t solve the UK asylum crisis.

Out of 78,768 asylum applications for the year ending June 2023, 71% were approved.

Only six return agreements have been struck in recent years and there is still a Home Office backlog of more than 130,000 cases.

“The problem here is the government isn’t sending as many people back as they used to,” Mr Bhangal said.

“The removals numbers have been whittled down. That isn’t the fault of the convention – it’s the machinery and a case of a bad workman blaming his tools.”

Official changes, like the one in 1967, have to be approved by all 149 member states, Mr Bhangal added, which with Ms Braverman’s lack of success on returns agreements, would be near impossible.

“I don’t think she’s going to get the support,” he said. “At the moment she can’t even get EU countries to sign return agreements, so it’s not even workable.

“Changing the wording of the convention isn’t going to stop the boats – people smugglers don’t care about what the official definition of a refugee is.”

Politics

Busy week for Labour as Starmer facing pressure over winter fuel payments and first prisoners to be released early

Published

2 hours ago

September 9, 2024

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Busy week for Labour as Starmer facing pressure over winter fuel payments and first prisoners to be released early

Labour’s post-election honeymoon looks to be over as it faces pressure this week over winter fuel payments, releasing prisoners early, and the state of the NHS.

Two months after winning a historic majority, Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers have a busy week as they face pressure not just from other parties, but their own MPs.

A vote on winter fuel payments, the prime minister speaking at the TUC conference, prisoners being released early, the publication of a report into the NHS and Sir Keir’s trip to the US are all on the cards this week.

Monday will see Chancellor Rachel Reeves addressing Labour MPs at a Parliamentary Labour Party meeting, where she is expected to face concerns about removing the winter fuel payment from 10 million pensioners.

MPs will vote on Tuesday on whether to limit the winter fuel payment to those on pension credit, after the government announced its intention at the end of July.

Labour MPs will be told they must vote with the government, however several, particularly on the left of the party, have voiced their opposition to the cut.

It is understood they may abstain instead of voting against the government, after Sir Keir set a clear precedent by suspending seven MPs from Labour after they rebelled over the decision to keep the two-child benefit cap.

Sir Keir would not say if he would again suspend MPs for voting against the government, telling the BBC on Sunday: “That will be a matter for the chief whip.”

The prime minister will also address the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference on Tuesday, where he is set to be questioned about the winter fuel payment cut and workers’ rights.

Sharon Graham, head of the Unite union, told Sky News on Sunday that they want the government to “think again” and called for a wealth tax instead.

She said: “We are in crisis. The Tories left a mess. No one’s denying that. Labour is right about that, but the choices they make to clear it up are really important.

“If we said the top 50 families in Britain are worth £500 billion, why aren’t they being looked at?

“Why are you looking at pensioners who really don’t have any sort of type of money? That’s the wrong choice to make.”

In a packed day for the government, Tuesday is also when the first tranche of prisoners will be released early under the Labour government as it tries to alleviate overpopulated prisons.

The Ministry of Justice admitted this week some serious offenders will be released early if they are serving a sentence for a lesser crime, having completed a sentence for a serious crime.

Reports on Saturday also claimed those serving time for common assault for being violent towards a partner would not be flagged as domestic abusers, so could be released early.

Sir Keir blamed the Conservative government for not building enough prisons, saying he was “forced into this”.

Thursday will see the publication of a report into the state of the NHS by Lord Darzi, an eminent cancer surgeon and former Labour health minister.

The report has already had some sections released in summary, with children’s health and the progression of heart and circulatory diseases heavily criticised.

Sir Keir said the report showed the NHS was “broken” as he again hit out at the Conservatives’ “unforgivable” reforms.

To end the week, the prime minister will head to Washington DC for his second meeting with President Joe Biden since becoming prime minister.

On Sunday, Sir Keir denied the US was angry at the UK for suspending some arms sale licences to Israel and said they had spoken before and after the decision.

He said discussions with Mr Biden will focus on the next few months in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Politics

Government ‘picking pockets of pensioners’ by cutting winter fuel payments, says Unite boss

Published

7 hours ago

September 8, 2024

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Government 'picking pockets of pensioners' by cutting winter fuel payments, says Unite boss

Firebrand union leader Sharon Graham has told Sky News that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is guilty of “picking the pockets of pensioners” by cutting winter fuel payments.

The leader of the Unite union was speaking on the opening day of the TUC conference in Brighton, where she spearheaded demands for a wealth tax on millionaires to fund restoring the winter cash for pensioners.

“Britain is in crisis, and we need to make very, very different choices,” said Ms Graham.

“We’re calling on Labour not to pick the pockets of pensioners, but to have a wealth tax on the biggest and richest 1% in society.”

She said her proposal would create £25 billion, more than enough to fill the £22 billion “black hole” blamed by the chancellor and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for the cuts.

“Job’s done, let’s move on and change society,” she added.

“We’re calling for the government to think again. This issue isn’t going to go away. We’re coming up to winter. People are going to be freezing cold.

“You’re going to have older people not wanting to put on their heat.”

14 years of ‘queueing for a pay rise’

On unions’ calls for pay to be restored to 2010 levels, Ms Graham said: “Workers and communities have been back of the queue for over 14 years. They’ve been right at the back of the queue. They’ve had pay freezes.

“They haven’t had pay rises in line with inflation. And the inflation is baked in. So while inflation is going up more slowly, those prices are still baked in.

“And what we’re saying, as the union movement, is that workers need to be paid properly and that is something that we should be proud of.

“We should be proud to say that workers should be paid properly. And that’s what I’m pushing for.”

Politics

Health Secretary Wes Streeting says NHS waiting lists need to be ‘millions lower’ by 2029

Published

18 hours ago

September 8, 2024

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Health Secretary Wes Streeting says NHS waiting lists need to be 'millions lower' by 2029

The health secretary has said NHS waiting lists need to be “millions lower” by the next general election in 2029.

Wes Streeting told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips he is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure waiting lists are brought down, including using the private sector.

He said the “NHS waiting list will need to be millions lower by the end of this parliament”.

Mr Streeting said he wants to end the “two-tier system” where those who can afford it go private “and those who can’t are being left behind”.

However, he said where there is spare capacity in the private sector the NHS should use that to get waiting lists down.

“Rebuilding that [the NHS] takes time,” he said.

“So in the meantime, I’m looking to pull every single lever I can to make sure that people get treated as fast as possible and as safely as possible.

“And you can get those waiting lists down, get people back to health, back to work, or back to enjoying their lives in retirement.”

Mr Streeting said his centre-left principles mean he cannot leave “working class people waiting longer even where there is spare capacity in the private sector that we could use via the NHS to get those people treated faster”.

Questioned on whether GPs will get the 11% pay rise they are asking for, after Labour gave other public sector workers their requested increases, Mr Streeting would not confirm they will.

Instead, he said he has been in negotiations with the British Medical Association (BMA) GP committee and met them “many times” since becoming health secretary.

However, he said said he did want to “set expectations in the wrong places” as he cited cutting the winter fuel allowance for pensioners not claiming pension credit.

“There are difficult balances to strike in the public finances,” he said.

An investigation into the state of the NHS, ordered by the government in July, has been undertaken by Lord Darzi, an eminent surgeon and former Labour health minister, and will be published on Thursday.

Sir Keir Starmer said the review shows the NHS is “broken” and is expected to reveal that “too many” people are being let down by the NHS.

Shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins said she was concerned by Lord Darzi’s links to the Labour party as she said the NHS situation in Wales, which has been under Labour control for more than 100 years, is “lamentable”.

“This report, I fear, is cover for the Labour Party to raise our taxes in the budget in October and they are laying the groundwork for this,” she said.

“They weren’t straight with us about wind fuel payments. They’re not being straight with us about taxes. And we need to have a grown up conversation about the NHS, but this is not the way to go about it.”