75 years after its adoption, the Refugee Convention remains as critical as ever for the protection of refugee and asylum-seeker rights: UN and regional human rights experts

GENEVA (24 June 2026) – In commemoration of World Refugee Day, the Platform of Independent Experts on Refugee Rights (PIERR), a group of independent UN and regional human rights experts, marks this 75^th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention and recalls the critical importance of the Refugee Convention and other human rights instruments for the protection of refugees and asylum-seekers.

Seventy-five years ago, the global community recognized the need to establish a specific human rights instrument dedicated to ensuring the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers in the form of the 1951 Refugee Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. The Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol form the backbone of international refugee law, enshrining key rights and responsibilities for protection of those forced to cross borders to find safety due to persecution, war, or conflict.

The 1951 Convention also served as a catalyst for the development of complementary regional frameworks. These regional instruments have built upon the Convention’s core principles—such as non-refoulement and the definition of a refugee—while adapting them to address specific historical, political, and socio-economic contexts and challenges. Notably, these regional frameworks have often broadened the scope of protection by incorporating regionally relevant causes of displacement.

In today’s increasingly complex geopolitical landscape—and amid historically high numbers of people seeking safety across borders—we reaffirm the enduring relevance of the Refugee Convention. We are also witnessing increasing restrictions on access to asylum procedures, and a growing reliance on externalization arrangements and other policies aimed at shifting protection responsibilities beyond national borders. Such measures risk eroding the principles of international solidarity and responsibility-sharing that lie at the heart of the international refugee protection regime. They also risk undermining the effective implementation of a framework painstakingly built over the past seventy-five years. Responses aimed at circumventing international obligations cannot constitute sustainable solutions. In addition to responsibility-sharing principles, all measures adopted in relation to refugee protection must remain in compliance with obligations under international refugee, human rights and humanitarian law, including the fundamental principle of non-refoulement. We also recall the complementarity between international and regional frameworks which together form a robust and indispensable architecture for safeguarding refugee rights and advancing durable solutions. Far from outdated, these instruments and mandates remain vital, resilient, and more relevant than ever in today’s forced displacement landscape.

In its June 2026 Global Trends report, the UN Refugee Agency reported more than 50 million asylum‑seekers, refugees, and others in need of international protection worldwide, within a broader total of 117 million forcibly displaced people. Their displacement journeys are shaped by layered human rights violations: persecution and conflict force them to flee; exploitation and abuse threaten them en route; and upon arrival, legal and other barriers can deny them full access to their fundamental human rights and liberties.

We further emphasize that financial considerations can never justify regression in the protection of refugee rights. Such resource constraints must not result in diminished respect for fundamental principles, including non-refoulement, access to asylum and to essential services. Particularly in times of crisis, the protection of refugees and asylum-seekers must remain a shared international responsibility and a humanitarian imperative.

As we commemorate this World Refugee Day, we reaffirm the continuing relevance and importance of the Refugee Convention at 75 years. The complementarity of the refugee and human rights frameworks provide a flexible, durable foundation that paves the path toward refugee rights and solutions. But rights on paper are not enough.

To meet contemporary challenges in the implementation of these rights, it is vital to work jointly in a spirit of solidarity and responsibility-sharing to guide our collective efforts, and to see change. Backsliding on refugee rights is not an option. What is needed now is sustained multi‑stakeholder engagement, renewed commitment, and courageous political will to ensure meaningful action in protecting the human rights of all, including refugees and asylum-seekers.

ENDS   

Matthew Gillett, (Chair-Rapporteur), UN Working Group on arbitrary detention; Siobhán Mullally, UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Gehad Madi, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; Grażyna Baranowska, (Vice-Chairperson), UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; Jorge Contesse, Member, UN Committee against Torture; Selma Sassi-Safer, Commissioner and Special Rapporteur on refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and migrants in Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights; Andrea Pochak, Commissioner and Rapporteur on Human Mobility of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; and Alan Mitchell, President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture.

 ABOUT THE PIERR:

The PIERR is currently composed of the mandates of the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the human rights of migrants and on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, the Working Group on arbitrary detention, the UN Committee against Torture, the Special Rapporteur on refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and migrants in Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Rapporteurship on Human Mobility of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture.

The Platform is supported by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. For more information, please refer to www.pierr.org.