This question pertains to the area of refugees.

This essay will be discussing various aspects

The 1951 refugee convention defined refugee as that assemblage of people who are unable
to go back to their birth country due to fear of being tortured on basis of race, religion or cast.
Refugees are defined as people who have fled their birth country due to the country being in a
state of war or turmoil. Although refugee status is difficult to obtain, once obtained, refugees
are protected under international law and conventions. Furthermore, refugee rights have been
heavily criticized and politicized around the world, as evidenced by the Rohingya crisis in
2019, in which Bangladesh refused to accept Myanmar refugees, while Pakistan and Iran
accepted a large number of Afghan refugees during the Afghan war, and Africa hosted
millions of refugees during the Congo war.

The United High Commission for Refugee was created by the general assembly in the
aftermath of the World War ii, which aimed for the protection of refugees leading towards the
creation of the refugee convention of 1951 who's main concern was the protection of
refugees fundamental rights and who can attain the status of refugee. Further a criteria was
laid down in the 1951 Refugee Convention in order to establish who can be considered as a
refugee and differentiated between a refugee and asylum seeker. Moreover, numerous
administrations like United Nation Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA) and
International Refugee Organization (IRO) were created in order to provide aids, security
and assistance to the refugees during the cold wars. Further, the 1967 optional protocol was
the exclusive protocol adopted by the 1951 convention, resulting in the grandness and
significance of the 1951 convention and had been entrenched by most of the countries in their
national law across the globe. Furthermore, article 3 of the 1951 refugee convention
forbids any kind of discrimination against refugees which had also been enacted under
article 14 of the UDHR and article 26 of ICCPR. The treaty disallows any kind of
discrimination against the refugees as it goes against the fundamental rights, and if such
discrimination takes place a successful claim can be brought under this convention in the host
country legal system. However, if a refugee is participating in any criminal activity in the birth
country or has no fear of being tortured then that individual will lose his refugee status,
example maybe seen of Altaf Hussain, who has been living in an exile in UK since 2015
after he was presented before Anti-terrorism court of Pakistan. Further article 33 of the 1951
Refugee Conventions grants relief to the refugee that a refugee cannot be forcibly sent back
to his birth country.

Moreover, there have been some issues with deciding who can receive refugee status? The
1951Refugee Convention places a duty on the state to give refugee status to those who
qualify, and a set of criteria has been established for this purpose. However, UNRRA has
noted that the test has both a subjective and an objective view. When judging subjectively, the
person giving refugee status will take into account the person's credibility and level of fear,
whereas when judging objectively, the person granting refugee status will investigate the
facts.

The majority of refugees worldwide over the past 20 years have been women, who face
numerous issues like discrimination, violence, and homicide because they are the most
vulnerable. Sherbat Gula, the most well-known Afghani girl who has become a global symbol
for the suffering of Afghan women, is just one example. Despite having spent her whole
childhood in Pakistan, she was forcibly returned to Afghanistan, which is a blatant breach of
the 1951 Refugee Convention. In addition, a new video that violates the 1951 Refugee
convention shows a group of racist Turks kicking a 70-year-old immigrant woman in the face.
This video has been circulating on social media. As the most vulnerable group of individuals,
women refugees experience extreme discrimination. Two women who had been wrongfully
convicted of adultery in Pakistan fled to the UK in search of asylum, but the courts granted
them refugee status since they fully met the requirements of the 1951 Refugee Convention.
This case is R v. Immigration Appeal Tribunal. Lord Hoffman stated that; “the concept of
discrimination in matters affecting fundamental rights and freedoms is central to an
understanding of the convention. It is concerned not with all cases of persecution, even if they
involve denials of human fundamental rights, but with prosecution which is based on
discrimination”.

According to Lord Steyn; in 1948 the universal declaration had disapproved discrimination on
the grounds of color and sex.

In the case of R v Home secretary, ex parte Sivakumaran the question before the judges
was that whether an asylum seeker can be granted refugee status or not? In such situaton
article 1A(2) was applied by the courts examining the criteria laid down in 1951 Refugee
convention and article 2 and 3 of ECHR should be applied for determining refugee status.
However, in the case of HJ (Iran) and HT(Cameroon) v SOS for the HD, the supreme court
held that asylum should not be refused to a person based on their sexuality, this case has
been a landmark judgment for the LGBTQ+ community.

According to a UNHCR survey report from 2016, there are 21 million refugees worldwide, of
which Turkey is one. Pakistan Iran Jordan Ethiopia and Lebanon are home to the vast
majority of the world's refugees. One in every five Jordanians is a refugee. More crucially, the
Afghan refugee crisis began in 2021 as a result of the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, with
more than 123000 Afghan people awarded refugee status in Western countries, according to
the BBC. Afghanistan has been a conflict zone since 2001, and the people of Afghanistan
have been dispersed from their country, with Pakistan and Iran hosting the majority of them,
while European countries closed their doors to Afghan refugees in 2016, which is a big
discrimination and a complete violation of the refugee convention 1951.

the states are bound by a positive obligation under the refugee convention 1951 to host any
kind of refugees and eliminate discrimination instantly but due to systemic failures in many
countries, the implementation of such regime has failed miserably as even after the
implementation of such law many refugees faces a considerable amount of discrimination,
such regime can only be successful in theory. Example of Pakistan can be taken where
Afghan refugee faces a huge discrimination and are called by various names such as “Majer”
which is a symbolic slang word, leading towards an utmost violation of the refugee convention
1951 however no action is taken by the state to stop such kind of discrimination.

The 1951 Refugee convention was established as a result of the aftermath of World War II,
but it is an outdated convention that only considered issues that arose during wartime. Such
conventions must be updated and reinterpreted in order to be compatible with today's issues
and problems, and discrimination is prohibited because it violates people's basic human
Fundamental rights.

In light of the arguments discussed it can be concluded out that the 1951 Refugee
Convention came into force after the aftermath of WWii and looked only into the issues of
refugees of war however since the modern world has new issues therefore it must be made
incompliance with the modern world and should be strictly implemented in the countries in
order to protect basic fundamental human rights, and the countries should adopt a strict
regime more as an enforceable one.