The US government is inviting government delegations to a high-level meeting on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in what looks like the first step in a bid to tear down the global refugee system. A US State Department “concept note” for the event outlines an approach that seems determined to run roughshod over the rights of refugees.
This is happening parallel to an executive order that requires a national-interests review of all conventions and treaties the United States has joined.
Alarmingly, the US State Department’s list of the “core principles” in its concept note fails to include the principle of nonrefoulement, which holds that refugees cannot be returned to places where they would likely be persecuted, the foundation of the global refugee system.
The note asserts that “every nation has the absolute right to control its borders.” While international law is highly deferential to states in controlling their borders, the principle of nonrefoulement maintains that states don’t have unfettered discretion to push people away.
Everyone’s right “to seek and enjoy asylum in other countries from persecution” is the flip side of nonrefoulement. If countries are prohibited from sending someone to a place where they would be tortured or persecuted, they need to afford them a way to secure protection.
The US concept note contends that “asylum is a temporary, not permanent, status, and that asylees should ultimately return home.” But in reality, that depends on the home country situation. If the threats and harm that caused someone to flee their country are unchanged, or get worse, sending them back is not an option.
The note also asserts that “sovereign states, not transnational bodies, make the determination whether conditions in a country of origin permit return.” True, but in making refugee determinations in good faith, states should respect assessments by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, whose determinations are guided by its mandate, whereas states often have conflicting interests.
States gathering for the General Assembly opening should reject the US invitation to trash the post-World War II global refugee system. Instead, they should renew their commitment to the core principles of the 1951 Refugee Convention and to a global order based on the solidarity of states to help each other to provide safety to the persecuted.
