¹ According to its Art. 1A, para. 2, the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees was originally limited to the protection of persons who fled as a “result of events occurring before 1 January 1951”, and States had, according to Art. 1B, para. 1(a), the possibility to declare that this phrase should be understood as “events occurring in Europe before 1 January 1951”. The temporal limitation was removed by the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, and only five States still retain the geographical limitation.

² Art. 1A, para. 2. For a discussion of this notion of refugee see below.

³ Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977. – See Jean-Philippe Lavoyer, “Refugees and internally displaced persons: International humanitarian law and the role of the ICRC”, IRRC, No. 305, March-April 1995, pp. 162–180.

⁴ See Art. 4, para. 2, Fourth Convention, and Art. 73, Additional Protocol I.

⁵ Art. 70, para. 2, Fourth Convention.

⁶ Refugee Convention, Art. 9.

⁷ Robinson, Nehemiah, Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees: Its History, Contents and Interpretation, A Commentary, Institute of Jewish Affairs, New York, 1953, p. 95Google Scholar.

⁸ Grahl-Madsen, Atle, Commentary on the Refugee Convention 1951, UNHCR, Geneva, 1963, p. 421Google Scholar.

⁹ Refugee Convention, Arts 13,15 and 21.

¹⁰ Refugee Convention, Arts 20, 22 and 24.

¹¹ For a detailed analysis of this provision see UNHCR, Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status, Geneva, 1992Google Scholar (first edition 1979). See also Hathaway, James, The Law of Refugee Status, Toronto, 1991, pp. 29–188Google Scholar, and Gill, Guy Goodwin, The Refugee in International Law, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1996, pp. 40–79Google Scholar.

^{12 12}See Lavoyer, , op. at. (note 3), pp. 171 ff.Google Scholar

¹³ Fourth Convention, Arts 49 and 147; Additional Protocol I, Arts 51, para. 7; 78, para. 1; and 85, para. 4; and Additional Protocol II, Arts 4, para. 3(e) and 17.

¹⁴ See in particular Protocol I, Part IV, Arts 48–79.

¹⁵ Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 8 June 1977.

¹⁶ Art. I, para, 1, repeats the refugee definition of Article IA, para. 2.

¹⁷ Art. I, para. 2, 1969 OAU Convention Governing Specific Aspects of the Refugee Problem in Africa.

¹⁸ See, e.g. Lawyers Committee For Human Rights, African Exodus: Refugee Crisis, Human Rights and the 1969 OAU Convention, New York, 1995, p. 30Google Scholar.

¹⁹ Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, adopted at a colloquium entitled “Coloquio sobre la Proteccīon Internacional de los Refugiados en America Central, México y Panamá: Problemas Jurīdicos y Huma nitarios” held at Cartagena, Colombia, from 19–22 November 1984.

²⁰ Art. 3 of the Declaration recommends as definition of a refugee “one which, in addition to containing the elements of the Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol, includes among refugees persons who have fled their country because their lives, safety or freedom have been threatened by generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order”.

²¹ The following is based on Kalin, Walter, Towards a Concept of Temporary Protection, Study on behalf of UNHCR, Division of International Protection, 12 November 1996.Google Scholar See also Walter Kalin, Interim Report on Refugee Procedures, International Law Association, Report of the 67th Conference, , Helsinki, 1996, London, 1996, pp. 116–139; Towards a Concept of Temporary Protection, Interim Report on Temporary Protection, International Law Association, Report of the 68th Conference, Taipei, 1998, London, 1998, pp. 407–426Google Scholar.

²² Luca, Donatella, “Questioning temporary protection”, International journal of Refugee Law, Vol. 6, 1994, p. 535Google Scholar. On temporary protection, see also Kjaerum, Morten, “Temporary protection in Europe in the 1990s”, International journal of Refugee Law, Vol. 6, 1994, p. 444Google Scholar; Reinhard Marx, “Temporary protection – Refugees from former Yugoslavia: International protection or solution-oriented approach?”, European Council on Refugees and Exiles, June 1994; Thornburn, Joanne, “Transcending boundaries: Temporary protection and burden-sharing in Europe”, International journal of Refugee Law, Vol. 7, 1995, p. 459;Google ScholarKerber, Karoline, “Temporary protection in the European Union: A chronology”, Georgetown Immigration Law journal. Vol. 14, (1999, p. 1, pp. 39–50).Google Scholar

²³ Report of the Sub-Committee of the Whole on International Protection, UN Doc. A/AC.96/858,17 October 1995, para. 5.

²⁴ Adopted by the Meeting of the Ministers of the Member States of the European Communities responsible for immigration in the Member States of the European Communities, Copenhagen, 1 and 2 June 1993. Reprinted with comments by Elspeth Guild, The Developing Immigration and Asylum Policies of the European Union, Adopted Conventions, Resolutions, Recommendations, Decisions and Conclusions, The Hague/London/Boston, 1996, pp. 293–309.

²⁵ Proposal for a Council Directive on minimum standards for giving temporary protection in the event of mass influx of displaced persons and on measures promoting a balance of efforts between Member States in receiving such persons and bearing the consequences thereof, 24 May 2000, Doc. 500PC0303

²⁶ At the time of writing this article, the Directive had not been adopted but a political consensus had been reached to adopt it soon.

²⁷ For details and references to case law, see Kalin, Walter, “Refugees and civil wars: Only a matter of interpretation?”, International Journal of Refugee Law, Vol. 3, 1991Google Scholar, and “Non-State agents of persecution and the inability of the State to protect”, Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, No. 3, Vol. 15, 2001, pp. 415–431Google Scholar.

²⁸ UN Doc. E/CN.4/1996/52/Add. 2.

²⁹ UN Doc E/CN.4/1998/53/Add. 2. – See Lavoyer, Jean-Philippe, “Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement”, IRRC, No. 324, September 1998, pp. 467–480;Google ScholarGoldman, Robert K., “Codification of international rules on internally displaced persons”, IRRC, pp. 463–466;Google ScholarKälin, Walter, Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement: Annotations, Washington D.C., 2000.Google Scholar

³⁰ Article 3 common to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and 1977 Additional Protocol II.

³¹ See in particular Art. 49 of the Fourth Convention, and Art. 17 of Additional Protocol col II.

³² Promoting peace and security: Humanitarian assistance to refugees in Africa, S/PRST/2000/1,13 January 2000.

³³ Inter-American Commission on Human33 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Colombia, 1999, Chap. 4, para. 10.

³⁴ See, e.g. Angola, Conselho de Ministros, Decreto No. 1/01, Normas sobre o reassentamento das populaçōes deslocados, Diario da Repúblics, I Série – No. 1, 5 January 2001; Burundi, Protocol retatif à la création d'uncadre permanent de concertation pour la protection des personnes déplacées, 7 February 2001.