The 1951 Refugee Convention is the central
instrument in international law that pertains
to the status and treatment of refugees.  It's
an international treaty which means that it's
an agreement that different countries have
agreed voluntarily to be bound by and Australia
is one of those countries.  The 1951 Convention
was really a response to the displacement
that had happened during the Second World
War.  So that instrument defined refugees
as people who are outside their country with
a well-founded fear of persecution for one
of five reasons, namely; nationality, political
opinion, religion, membership of a particular
social group or their race.  Originally,
that treaty said that you were only a refugee
if you were fleeing events that had occurred
prior to the 1st of January, 1951.  However,
in 1967, countries adopted a protocol to the
1951 Refugee Convention which essentially
removed that limitation.  By ratifying the
Refugee Convention, Australia promises to
abide by the obligations set out there.  Perhaps
the most important one is the principle of
non-refoulement or non-return which is contained
in Article 33.  This means that Australia
has promised not to send refugees back to
places where they fear persecution for reasons
of their race, religion, nationality, political
opinion or their membership of a particular
social group.
The Refugee Convention, as I mentioned, is
a treaty.  But treaties don't have direct
application in Australia unless they have
been essentially turned into part of our domestic
law.  So some of the important obligations
that Australia has are translated into our
Migration Act and Australia, through the Migration
Act, undertakes to protect refugees in accordance
with the '51 Convention.  
Another important element of the Refugee Convention
is contained in Article 31.  And that's the
provision that says that countries will not
penalise asylum seekers when they are arriving
in a country without documents in search of
protection.  The reason for that of course
is because the very nature of refugee flight
might mean that you simply don't have documentation
with you when you need to flee.  But it also
can be because a person for instance who is
fighting against a particular regime, won't
be able to obtain a passport from that regime.
 
And the other point of course as well, is
that countries don't issue refugee visas outside
their own territory.  So essentially, to
be a refugee, you need to cross an international
border and if you then find your way to an
Australian consulate if there is one in the
place that you are, you can't say, I need
your protection Australia, right here, and
be issued with a visa.  And it's very unlikely
you'll qualify for a tourist visa or a work
visa or similar kind of visa, precisely because
of the assumption that you're not really a
tourist, that instead, when you arrive in
Australia, you'll seek asylum.
In addition to the principle of non-refoulement
or non-return under the Refugee Convention,
Human Rights Law also contains protections
against return.  Importantly, under the ICCPR,
the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, and also the Convention Against Torture,
countries are prevented from returning people
to a place where they face a real risk of
being tortured.  Further, under the ICCPR,
countries are precluded from sending somebody
back to a place where they would be at risk
of being killed or otherwise arbitrarily deprived
of their life.  Countries also can't return
someone if they are going to be at risk of
the death penalty or if they might be exposed
to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment
of punishment.  This is generally known as
complimentary protection because it complements
the non-refoulement obligation in the Refugee
Convention.  
Of course, Refugee Law is part of broader
International Human Rights Law and that's
important because although the Refugee Convention
stipulates particular rights that are owed
to refugees, all refugees are of course human
beings and therefore have entitlements under
the general Human Rights Treaties as well.
 
There are also a couple of regional refugee
instruments.  The first of these is the 1969
OAU Convention which applies in Africa.  In
addition to picking up the refugee definition
from the 1951 Convention, this treaty also
says that refugees are people who are fleeing
such things as occupation by another country,
foreign aggression, events seriously disturbing
the public order and so on. There's also a
Latin-American instrument known as the Cartagena
Declaration from 1984.  Similarly, this applies
to people fleeing foreign domination, aggression
and serious human rights violations.  So
these definitions apply in those particular
regions in addition to the 1951 Refugee Convention
definition.  
Is anyone excluded from refugee protection?
 Well under Article 1F of the Refugee Convention,
there are grounds for excluding people who've
committed very serious crimes from refugee
status.  These are crimes like war crimes,
genocide, crimes against humanity, serious
non-political crimes committed outside the
country prior to seeking asylum or acts that
are contrary to the purposes and principles
of the UN.  So something like terrorism would
definitely be encompassed within that framework. 
