1993 (Executive Committee—44th Session) CONCLUSIONS ADOPTED BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION OF REFUGEES 1 No. 71 (XLIV) GENERAL (1993) The Executive Committee, (a) Notes with concern the dimension and complexity of the present refugee problem, the potential risk of new refugee situations and the challenges confronting refugee protection; (b) Reaffirms the importance of the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees at the centre of the international legal framework for the protection of refugees; (c) Welcomes, in this connection, the recent accession or succession of Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the Slovak Republic to the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, bringing the number of States parties to one or both instruments to 123, and encourages other States to accede to these instruments and to implement their provisions and thus to promote further international cooperation in responding to and resolving refugee problems; (d) Recognizes the crucial importance of the High Commissioner's functions of providing international protection to refugees and seeking solutions to refugee problems, the exercise of which has become increasingly difficult owing to the increasing numbers of persons in need of protection and the growing complexity of the problems of coerced displacement; (e) Notes with appreciation that States confronted with refugee situations, including in particular developing countries with limited resources, continue to observe the fundamental principles of international protection, admitting and providing asylum to more than eighteen million refugees, and welcomes the continuing strong commitment of States to provide protection and assistance to refugees and to cooperate with the High Commissioner in the discharge of her international protection responsibilities; (f) Notes however with concern that the protection of refugees continues to be seriously jeopardized in certain situations as a result of denial of access, expulsion, refoulement and unjustified detention, as well as other threats to their physical security, dignity and well-being; (g) Calls upon States to uphold asylum as an indispensable instrument for the international protection of refugees and to respect scrupulously the fundamental principle of non-refoulement; (h) Stresses the importance of international solidarity and burden-sharing in reinforcing the international protection of refugees, and calls upon all States in conjunction with UNHCR to cooperate in efforts to lighten the burden borne by States that have received large numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers; (i) Reiterates the importance of establishing and ensuring access consistent with the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol for all asylum-seekers to fair and efficient procedures for the determination of refugee status in order to ensure that refugees and other persons eligible for protection under international or national law are identified and granted protection; (j) Recognizes that in certain regions the arrival and presence of large numbers of applicants for asylum and refugee status who have no valid claim to international protection creates serious problems both for refugees and for the States concerned by adversely affecting the institution of asylum, jeopardizing the effectiveness of national procedures for the determination of refugee status, and preventing the prompt and effective protection of refugees; (k) Stresses the usefulness of measures to promote the prompt determination of refugee status in fair procedures, and recognizes the advisability of concluding agreements among States directly concerned, in consultation with UNHCR, to provide for the protection of refugees through the adoption of common criteria 1 Contained in United Nations General Assembly Document No. 12A (A/48/12/Add.1) 97