Spread Too Thin? the UNHCR and the New Geopolitics of Refugees (Features‪)‬

The international protection of refugees started after World War I with the appointment of the High Commissioner for Refugees by the League of Nations, but the tradition of protecting the stranger in need is found far earlier in most world cultures. During the inter-war period, the High Commissioner focused on protecting groups at risk, such as White Russians, Armenians, and Jews in Eastern Europe. However, after the end of World War II, the international community focused on the protection of the individual rather than the group, most notably through the adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly. This shift from the group to the individual has been applied to the protection of refugees, too, although I argue that there is nothing in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees requiring an individualistic approach. Rather, the group element is still predominant in the test for refugee status. Definition of the Refugee