The League of Nations and Refugee Law

Ms. Elena Anabella Krusheuskaja

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Set up in 1919 to promote Peace after the World War I

Generated from The “14 POINTS” - a statement given on January 8, 1918 by United States 28th President Woodrow Wilson declaring that World War I was being fought for a moral cause and calling for postwar peace in Europe.

Main Principles of The League of Nations

• The establishment of an association of nations to guarantee the independence and territorial integrity of all nations—a League of Nations.• Promotion of cooperation and World Peace• Military support by France and Britain (USA

didn’t join!)• Annual board meetings, collective

agreements only

NANSEN PASSPORT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AonnZiwmds

The first Nansen passports were issued following an international agreement reached at the Intergovernmental Conference on Identity Certificates for Russian Refugees, convened by Fridtjof Nansen in Geneva from July 3, 1922 to July 5, 1922 in his role as High Commissioner for Refugees for the League of Nations.

Main receivers of the first Nansen passports

• By 1942, they were honored by governments in 52 countries. Approximately 450,000 Nansen passports were provided to stateless people and refugees who needed travel documents but could not obtain one from a national authority.

• The Nansen passport was originally provided to refugees from the Russian civil war. It is estimated that about 800,000 Russian refugees had become stateless when Lenin revoked citizenship for all Russian expatriates in 1921. In 1933, the arrangement was broadened to also include Armenian, Assyrian, and Turkish refugees.

How did the passport look like

Famous refugees, obtained the Nansen passport

• Robert Capa• Marc Chagall• Alexander Galich• Alexander

Grothendieck• G. I. Gurdjieff• Anatol Heintz• Vladimir Nabokov

• Anna Pavlova• Jadwiga Piłsudska• Sergey Rakhmaninov• Rabbi Menachem

Mendel Schneerson• Otto Skorzeny• Igor Stravinsky• Aristotle Onassis

Fridtjof Nansen

Nansen studied zoology and later worked as a curator at the Bergen Museum where his research on the central nervous system of lower marine creatures earned him a doctorate and helped establish modern theories of neurology.

After 1896 his main scientific interest switched to oceanography; in the course of his research he made many scientific cruises, mainly in the North Atlantic, and contributed to the development of modern oceanographic equipment.

As one of his country's leading citizens, in 1905 Nansen spoke out for the ending of Norway's union with Sweden, and was instrumental in persuading Prince Carl of Denmark to accept the throne of the newly independent Norway. Between 1906 and 1908 he served as the Norwegian representative in London, where he helped negotiate the Integrity Treaty that guaranteed Norway's independent status.

Fridtjof Nansen

• In the final decade of his life, Nansen devoted himself primarily to the League of Nations, following his appointment in 1921 as the League's High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of the displaced victims of the First World War and related conflicts. Among the initiatives he introduced was the "Nansen passport" for stateless persons, a certificate recognized by more than 50 countries. He worked on behalf of refugees until his sudden death in 1930.

Fridtjof Nansen• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwqQm-MHkLs

After Nansen…

• Following Nansen's death in 1930, the passport was handled by the Nansen International Office for Refugees within the League of Nations. At that point the passport no longer included a reference to the 1922 conference, but were issued in the name of the League. They were after that issued by a new Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees in London in London. Nansen International Office for Refugees received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1938 for its work, but due to its dissolution shortly afterwards, the prize money was received by a newly founded refugee organization of the League of Nations. The office was dissolved at the same time as the League dissolved the High Commission (established in 1933) because of the problems surrounding German refugees after the dissolution of the Third Reich.

MAIN DOCUMENTS

The League of Nations guaranteed a framework for a multilateral agreement and the first written, universally binding obligation, the 1938 convention, the predecessor of 1951 Geneva Convention.

First International agency dealing with refugees

• The High Commission for Refugees, established by the League of Nations under the direction of Fridtjof Nansen on June 27, 1921.

The original mandate of the High Commissioner

• In 1923, the original mandate of the High Commissioner to cover Russian refugees was extended to include the Armenian refugees. To begin with, the High Commission provided both material assistance as well as legal and political protection to refugees.

International Labor Organization

• In 1924 the International Labor Organization assumed responsibility for material assistance, but five years later resumed this function to the High Commission. Meanwhile, as the refugee problem broadened, the High Commissioner's mandate was broadened to take in Assyrians, Assyro-Chaldeans, and Turkish refugees.

The authority of The League

• After Nansen's death in May, 1930, and the later abolition of the office of the High Commission for Refugees, the League Secretariat assumed responsibility for the protection of the refugees, and that for material assistance was vested in the Nansen International Office for Refugees, an autonomous body under the authority of the League.

The end of mission

• The League provided administrative expenses for the Nansen Office on a schedule diminishing yearly as the Office approached the end of its mission on December 31, 1938. Its revenues for welfare and relief were obtained from private contributions, but mainly from fees charged for the «Nansen Certificate», an international substitute for a passport, and from the proceeds of the sale in France and Norway of stamps in aid of refugees.

Decline of The League

• The Nansen Office was beset by overwhelming problems during its existence - among them, the lack of stable and adequate financing; the onset of the depression which closed employment opportunities for refugees; the decline of the prestige of the League after the events of 1931 and 1935; the growing avalanche of refugees, mostly from Germany, Italy, and Spain; and the reluctance of member states of the League to permit League activities on behalf of persons who had previously been citizens of their countries.

1933 Refugee Convention

• The accomplishments of the Nansen Office include the adoption by fourteen countries of the Refugee Convention of 1933, a modest charter of human rights; the settlement of the Saar refugees in Paraguay after 1935; the construction of villages to house upwards of 40,000 Armenians in Syria and Lebanon and the resettlement of another 10,000 in Erivan; and, most important, the material, legal, and financial help given to almost a million refugees.

Dissolved Hansen Office

• The problem of German refugees after National Socialism came to power in Germany became so acute in 1933 that the League established a High Commission for Refugees Coming from Germany. This Commission, whose mandate was later broadened to take in both Austrian and Sudetenland refugees, was scheduled to be dissolved on December 31, 1938, simultaneously with the Nansen Office.

1938 Convention, first step

• Convention concerning the Status of Refugees Coming From Germany, 10 February 1938, Geneva, The League of Nations.

• Fragment: “League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees coming from Germany is instructed to convene for

• the beginning of 1938, an Inter-Governmental Conference for the adoption of an international

• convention for the benefit of refugees coming from Germany; • Considering that the making of arrangements for the

emigration of those who cannot be absorbed in the • countries in which they have taken refuge is an essential part

of the work undertaken for the benefit of • the said refugees”.

1938 Convention: remarks

• Austria was included in the list of signatory bodies with help of Additional Protocol, signed in Geneva 14.09.1939

• The text of convention DID NOT mention the expression “refoulement”, which led to problems with evacuation of refugees from Germany

• Further international legal instrument of that period was the resolution, adopted by the Intergovernmental Committee of Refugees (IGCR) in Evian 14.07.1939

Further role of IGCR

• For the first time IGCR extended the PROTECTION of “would-be refugees inside the country of potential departure”

• High Commissioner for Refugees was appointed as Director by IGCR Member States in February 1939

• IGCR ended their activity 30.06.1947, 6 months later of the office closure. During that time IGCR protected all “Nansen refugees” as well.

Thank you for attention!

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