ABSTRACT
The ending of refugee status via application of the ‘ceased circumstances’ cessation clause set out in Article 1C(5) of the 1951 Refugee Convention poses a number of difficult interpretative questions. One of the main legal issues is how cessation interacts with the recognition of refugee status under Article 1A(2) and with the central concepts of ‘persecution’ and ‘protection’ in that definition. The travaux préparatoires of the 1951 Refugee Convention provide very little definitive guidance on Article 1C(5), as it is unclear from the minutes of the proceedings from the Conference of Plenipotentiaries why certain terms were used in the clause and how they were understood to operate. The function of Article 1C of the 1951 Convention is to set out the conditions under which a person who has been formally recognised or determined to be a refugee ceases to be a refugee.
