The Refugee Convention's definition carried a cut-off date until its Protocol lifted the limit

Background

The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees was adopted at Geneva on 28 July 1951 and entered into force in 1954; the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees was done at New York on 31 January 1967. Article 1A, paragraph 2 of the Convention defines a refugee as a person outside their country of origin who is unable or unwilling to return or to seek its protection on account of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. As first drafted, that definition covered only those who became refugees by reason of events occurring before 1 January 1951, and the conference added an option allowing States to limit their obligations to refugees from events in Europe. The General Assembly took note of the Protocol in resolution 2198 (XXI); the Protocol required just six ratifications and lets a State apply the Convention's provisions without becoming party to the Convention itself. The core protection is non-refoulement, from the French refouler, to drive back or repel: no refugee should be returned to a country where he or she would be at risk of persecution, subject to a narrow security and serious-crime exception added by the 1951 conference. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was set up by resolution 428 (V) with effect from 1 January 1951, with a mandate unconstrained by geographical or temporal limits.