Extending the Scope of International Protection: Categories for Protected Forced Migrants

This paper addresses the current refugee definition and discusses how categories of protected persons might be expanded. I begin by outlining the reasons for formally extending the scope of international protection, including the diverse drivers of contemporary displacement as well as the challenges raised by inconsistent state practices and the lack of globally shared standards. From here I provide a survey of existing approaches and proposals by first turning to the work of scholars who have put forward various alternatives to the Convention definition. I then outline existing regional instruments, such as the 1969 OAU Convention and Cartagena Declaration, as well as the EU framework, all of which provide acknowledgment of the need for more inclusive coverage. Against this backdrop of scholarly debate and existing practices, I turn to the Model International Mobility Convention’s approach to expanding the scope of protection, to offer a starting point for further discussion.2 The paper assumes at the onset that what is required is the recognition of new globally shared categories of protection, to account for the many people not covered by the traditional refugee definition, while accepting the premise that there are compelling pragmatic reasons not to reopen the Convention itself. At the same time my discussion takes the New York Declaration’s proposed Global Compact on Refugees as signaling an important moment for the progressive reform of international protection. I thus conclude by briefly outlining potential pathways for implementation and how these might align with the development of the Global Compact on Refugees.