70th UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees: Bulgaria shelters over 27,000 asylum seekers
28 July 2021 News
July 28 marks the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees - one of the so-called UN universal conventions, with 149 countries acceding to it. The basic principle of the Convention - the prohibition on the return of refugees to the territory in which their life and liberty were endangered - is today considered a norm of customary international law.
In 1951, as Europe and the world recovered from the effects of World War II, the international community united around the need to develop a legal framework that contained the definition of "refugee" and set out the rights and obligations of refugees. The Convention gives states the responsibility to protect the lives of people seeking international protection and to help them build a better life. The Convention, together with its 1967 Protocol, is an indisputable achievement of the international codification process and a testament to the fact that states can reach an understanding on difficult issues by jointly rethinking past processes and sharing a vision for the present and the future.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the main UN office for the protection and assistance of refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and stateless persons, and serves as the "guardian" of the 1951 Convention, monitoring its proper application.
Bulgaria ratified the Refugee Convention and its Protocol in 1992 and conscientiously fulfilled its obligations related to their implementation. For the last almost 30 years, our country has granted refugee status to 13,806 people, and humanitarian status - to 13,411 people, thus not only saving their lives, which were in danger in their countries, but has given them and the future through its inclusion and integration policies.
Bulgaria will continue to support UNHCR consistently and actively in fulfilling its mandate, to fulfill its obligations under the 1951 Convention and its Protocol, and to implement the voluntary commitments related to the implementation of the UN Global Refugee Pact, which our country supports and welcomes as an instrument for international cooperation for more effective and predictable sharing of the burden and responsibility for refugees.