The Convention was originally designed to resolve the refugee problem in Europe after World War II. Therefore, the Convention was firstly limited to Europeans only. The 1967 Protocol of New York removed its geographical and temporal restrictions. The global treaty of 1951 provides a definition of who qualifies as a refugee – a person with a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion – and spells out the rights and obligations between host countries and refugees.

The Convention has enabled the UNHCR to help millions of uprooted people to restart their lives in the last 60 years. Today, it remains the cornerstone of refugee protection, which has been instrumental in helping an estimated 50 million refugees to restart their lives since 1951.

On 14 October 2011, the Belgian NCP of the EMN organises its national conference on 60 years of the Convention. Find more information here