© 1997 by Oxford University Press
Population Exchanges: International Law and State Practice—Part 1
* At the time of writing, Associate Lecturer on Public International Law, University of Utrecht, Netherlands. Currently legal researcher for the International Commission of Jurists. The research for this article was conducted in her capacity as a consultant for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), before the conclusion of the Dayton Peace Accords, and has been updated to March 1997. The views expressed in this article are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the United Nations or UNHCR. The author acknowledges the preliminary research on this topic conducted by Armineh Arakelian.
This article examines the human rights implications of population exchange agreements, as one factor determming their potential value as a durable solution to conflict situations. Using three case studies (Greece and Turkey, Cyprus, former Yugoslavia), the author reviews the circumstances leading to population exchanges and the arguments advanced to justify resolving these situations through compulsory or voluntary population exchanges. The article analyses the legal instruments regulating or providing for the exchange, from the perspective of international law, and focuses on the human rights implications, particularly when exchanges have been, or are being proposed as solution to situations that have created refugees and internally displaced persons. The author concludes that population exchange agreements no longer have a place in the contemporary international human rights context, and that the discretion of States to conclude such agreements is not unlimited.