International Journal of Refugee Law Advance Access published online on February 16, 2008
International Journal of Refugee Law, doi:10.1093/ijrl/eem068
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Redundant or Essential? How Politics Shaped the Outcome of the 1967 Protocol
* Dr Sara E. Davies is a lecturer at the School of Justice, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Correspondence: Email correspondence is welcome at: s5.davies{at}qut.edu.au.
The 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees has been described as an unnecessary addendum to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. However, if the 1967 Protocol was superfluous, why did the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the early 1960s insist on its development? This article seeks to establish that the 1967 Protocol was originally intended to encompass the broader concerns of African and Asian states concerning refugee populations in their region. However, the political influence upon the development of international refugee law radically altered the UNHCR's endeavour to make the 1951 Convention universally accessible.