ABSTRACT
The 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees defined a refugee as a person holding a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership of a social group or adherence to a political opinion (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2010). The 145 signatory countries to the Convention and the later Protocol in 1967 committed themselves to provide refugees with physical and legal protection, a path to citizenship, and access to the same civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights enjoyed by native nationals. Important additional protections highlighted in the Convention are the right to cross national borders to seek refuge, an act that should be regarded as a right and not a crime, and freedom from forced repatriation to places of danger, the non-refoulement provision. Although Australia has not adopted a bill of rights, the nation is signatory to a number of international instruments that are directly relevant to the treatment of persons displaced by persecution, including the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
