Forced Migration in the OIC Member Countries:
Policy Framework Adopted by Host Countries
13
 For reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group
or political opinion: Persecution must have occurred on account of one of these five
specified grounds, and other reasons for persecution are often not recognized.
 Outside the country of nationality or habitual residence: Refugees must be outside
their country of origin. The Convention is thus not applicable in situations where
persons find themselves displaced or in fear of persecution inside their country.
The core protection of the Convention is the prohibition of expulsion or return of a refugee “in
any manner whatsoever” to a territory where his or her “life or freedom would be threatened”
for one of the five reasons spelled out in the definition.14 This provision is known as the
principle of nonrefoulement. Other legal instruments have also emerged in the years since the
convention that have further enforced the principle of nonrefoulement and expanded it to
other vulnerable groups. The 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), a key example, stipulates that signatories may not
“expel, return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial
grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”15 Numerous
regional protection instruments contain similar prohibitions on inhuman or degrading
treatment that have been interpreted to imply protection against refoulement, as well as some
that explicitly prohibit refoulement.16 The principle of nonrefoulement is also considered by
many to have entered the body of customary international law, and would according to this
interpretation be applicable even to states that have not signed on to any of the conventions or
treaties which provide for it.
In addition to protection from refoulement, states assume other obligations under the 1951
Convention to accord refugees economic and social rights at least as favorable as those of
other legally present aliens, or in the case of certain basic rights (such as freedom of religion,
access to primary education, and intellectual property rights), treatment as favorable as those
of their own nationals. Such provisions protect refugees’ ability to, in some degree, build a
normal life. These include the right to acquire and hold property (Articles 13-14); the right to
work (Articles 17-19); the right to access housing, secondary education and social assistance
(Articles 21-23); and the right to primary level education on the same basis as their own
nationals (Article 22). These rights, however, rely on implementation by national
governments, and there are thus numerous barriers to refugees' enjoyment of these rights in
practice.17
Although the obligations states have to refugees are inherent in an individual's situation (i.e. a
person fleeing persecution on Convention grounds is fundamentally a refugee regardless of
whether or not a state or other actor has actually granted them legal status as a refugee), it is
up to states to recognize their obligations through a legal procedure. Refugee status under the
Convention definition is typically granted on the basis of an individual assessment, although in
situations where mass displacement has occurred refugees may be granted status or
protection from refoulement collectively on a prima facie basis. The need for an individual
14 Article 33, 51 C, UN General Assembly, 1951 Convention .
15 Article 3, UN General Assembly “Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment,” United Nations, December 10, 1984,
16 These include for example the European Convention on Human Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights, the
OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, and the African Charter on Human and
Peoples’ Rights.
17 See Section III for a full discussion of the barriers refugees face in accessing these rights.