Refugee Participation Revisited: The Contributions of Refugees to Early International Refugee Law and Policy

Abstract

This article challenges the assumption that until relatively recently refugees or persons with lived refugee experience have not been involved in the development of international refugee law and policy. By drawing on primary source material – including the preparatory work for international legal instruments such as the 1933 Convention relating to the International Status of Refugees and the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, along with the operational work of the League of Nations, the International Refugee Organization and the early years of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – this article argues that refugees and persons with lived refugee experience exercised significant influence and thought-leadership in the development of international refugee law and policymaking during the foundational years between 1921 and 1955. These contributions to the development of international refugee law and policy are significant because they not only reorient our understanding of the ways in which international law and policy pertaining to refugees has been developed and negotiated to date, but also because they provide a practical example of how refugees can more meaningfully be included in the creation of laws and policies that affect them going forward.