ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the general law relating to refugees and the concept of non-refoulement, and explains some of the legal implications flowing from the application of non-refoulement to persons fleeing from civil strife. It proposes certain standards of response to situations of mass involuntary movements and shows that the essentially moral obligation to assist refugees and to provide them with refuge or safe haven has, over time and in certain contexts, developed into a legal obligation. The principle of non-refoulement must be understood as applying beyond the narrow confines of the Articles 1 and 33 of the 1951 Refugee Convention. In 1981, the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees endorsed a list of some sixteen "basic human standards" which should govern the treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers admitted temporarily in a situation of mass influx.
