Main Debate
Should the refugee definition expand to meet protection needs not foreseen in 1951?
UNHCR Documents
- UNHCR, 'Handbook and Guidelines on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees', re-issued December 2011, HCR/1P/4/ENG/REV.3.
- UNHCR, ‘The International Protection of Refugees: Interpreting Art. 1 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees’, April 2001.
Editor’s Note
Since 1951 there have been expansions of the refugee definition in order to take into account the political and social contexts in different regions of the world. More detailed expositions of the evolution of the refugee definition can be found in the regional sections of The Reader (Section III, Africa; Section IV, the Americas; Section V, Asia; and Section VI; Europe).
