Ad Hoc Committee on Statelessness and Related Problems, Belgium and the United States of America: Proposed Text for Article 24 of the Draft Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees

E/AC.32/L.25

CHAPTER IX EXPULSION AND NON-ADMITTANCE

Article 24

First Article

Each of the High Contracting Parties undertakes not to expel or in any way turn back refugees to the frontiers of territories where their life or freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality or opinions.

Second Article

1. A refugee authorized to reside in the territory of any of the High Contracting Parties may not be expelled or turned back save on grounds of national security or public order and in pursuance of a decision reached by due process of law.

2. Such refugees shall be entitled to submit evidence to clear themselves and to be represented before the competent authority in accordance with the established law and procedure of the country.

3. The High Contracting Parties shall allow such refugees a reasonable period within which to seek legal admission into another country. During that period the High Contracting Parties reserve the right to apply such internal measures as they may deem necessary.

Third Article

1. The High Contracting Parties undertake to apply to refugees who enter or who are present in their territory without prior or legal authorization treatment compatible, from both the moral and material point of view, with human dignity.

2. Provided that such refugees present themselves without delay to the authorities and show good cause for their entry, the High Contracting Parties shall not impose penalties on them on account of their illegal entry or residence. The High Contracting Parties nevertheless reserve the right to apply to such refugees necessary police measures regarding their accommodation, residence and movement in their territory, until such time as it is possible to take a decision regarding their legal admission to the country of reception or their admission to another country; the High Contracting Parties shall allow such refugees a reasonable period and all the necessary facilities with a view to admission to another country.

CHAPTER XV TRANSITORY AND GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 29

The High Contracting Parties agree that in the case of persons deported from their country of origin or of regular residence to the territory of a Contracting Party by the Nazi authorities during the Second World War and who are living on the territory of one of the Contracting Parties, the period of deportation shall be included in any requirement of regular and uninterrupted residence in the territory of the said Contracting Party for the purposes of the present Convention.

Article 30

Each of the High Contracting Parties to the present Convention undertakes to adopt in accordance with its constitution, the legislative or other measures necessary to insure the application of the present Convention.

Article 31

1. The present Convention replaces the arrangements of July 5, 1922, May 31, 1924, May 12, 1926, June 30, 1928 and July 30, 1935, and the conventions of October 28, 1933 and February 10, 1938 and the agreement of 15 October 1946, as between all parties to the present Convention.

2. In cases where a State is party both to the present Convention and to any of the previous agreements or conventions mentioned herein and in cases where a State is party only to any of such agreements and conventions, the latter shall be binding upon both States.

3. Each of the above-mentioned agreements shall be deemed to be terminated when all the Parties thereto shall have become parties to the present Convention. (Text of the last part of Article 28 of the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of others, resolution No. 317 (IV) of 2 December 1949.)

Final clauses

Article 36 (Colonial clause)

Any State may, at the time of Signature or the deposit of its formal instrument of acceptance or at any time thereafter, declare by notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations that the present Protocol shall extend to all or any of the territories for which it has international responsibility; and this Protocol shall extend to the territory or territories named in the notification as from the thirtieth day after the date of receipt of this notification by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. (Article 8 of the Protocol Bringing Under International Control Drugs Outside The Scope of the Convention of 31 July 1931 for Limiting The Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs, as Amended by the Protocol Signed at Lake Success on 11 December 1946, approved by the General Assembly in its resolution No. 211 (III).)