Origin Codified in 1951, in Article 33 of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees; developed in response to the international failure to protect refugees fleeing Nazi persecution.
Non-refoulement is a doctrine of international law prohibiting a state from expelling or returning a person, most often a refugee or asylum seeker, to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. It is anchored in Article 33 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and grew out of the international community's recognition of its own failure to protect refugees fleeing Nazi persecution before and during the Second World War; though rooted in that treaty, non-refoulement is widely regarded as binding customary international law, applying even to states that have not ratified the Convention. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Origin PeriodCodified in 1951, in Article 33 of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees; developed in response to the international failure to protect refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. 1 Core PrincipleNo state shall expel or return a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where their life or freedom would be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. 1 Origin Period
Origin Period (category)20th Century (1900-1999) 1 Classification
Doctrine Category Connections
Associated With
Codified as Article 33 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the principal source of the non-refoulement obligation.
Both are protective principles of international law constraining a state's treatment of individuals within or entering its territory.
Both are international-law/human-rights enforcement principles governing state conduct toward individuals across borders.
In Area Of Law
Entity-backed identity for the doctrine category value this doctrine already carries as an enum fact, resolved to a doctrine entity by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The enum fact itself stays on the entity unchanged.
Sources
1. Non-Refoulement (Wikipedia)
WikipediaArticle 33 section
No Contracting State shall expel or return (refouler) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
Lead section
Non-refoulement () is a fundamental principle of international law anchored in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees that forbids a country from deporting ("refoulement") any person to any country in which their "life or freedom would be threatened" on account of "race, religion, nationality, membershi
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