Establishment of the Sub-Committee and General Conclusion on International Protection

No. 1 (XXVI) - 1975

The Executive Committee,

(a) Expressed appreciation to the High Commissioner for the way he was discharging his duties in this especially important and particularly difficult field and fully shared his concern at the numerous and flagrant violations of the human rights of refugees;

(b) Fully endorsed the proposal that at an appeal be made urging States Members of the United Nations and non-member States to conform fully with the humanitarian principles governing the protection of refugees and, in particular, to abide by the provisions of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and of its 1967 Protocol and scrupulously to observe the principle whereby no refugee should be forcibly returned to a country where he fears persecution;

(c) Stressed that, in keeping with the universal character of the problem of refugees, many more States should accede to international instruments relating to the status of refugees and that these instruments be fully implemented according to both the letter and spirit in which they had been conceived;

(d) Considered that a conference of plenipotentiaries should be convened, as envisaged, to consider the draft Convention on Territorial Asylum, and recommended that the cost involved in this conference be borne from the regular budget of the United Nations;

(e) Recommended that the views of the Committee in (d) above be conveyed to the General Assembly of the United Nations;

(f) Emphasized that, in keeping with the fundamental principles of family unity, members of refugee families should be given every opportunity to be reunited by being allowed to leave their country of origin;

(g) Welcomed the High Commissioner's continuing efforts to survey individual cases with a view to identifying major protection problems and recommended that Governments should contribute to achieving rapid solutions to such problems;

(h) Decided on the establishment of a Sub-Committee of the Whole on International Protection which would meet, in principle, during the sessions of the executive committee and would study in more detail some of the more technical aspects of the protection of refugees and would report to the Committee on its findings.