1975 (Executive Committee—26th Session)
CONCLUSIONS ADOPTED
BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
ON INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION OF REFUGEES ESTABLISHING A SUB-COMMITTEE OF
THE WHOLE ON INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION 1
No. 1 (XXVI) ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE AND GENERAL (1975)
The Executive Committee,
(a) Expressed appreciation to the High Commissioner for the way he was discharging his duties in this
especially important and particularly difficult field and fully shared his concern at the numerous and flagrant
violations of the human rights of refugees;
(b) Fully endorsed the proposal that at an appeal be made urging States Members of the United Nations
and non-member States to conform fully with the humanitarian principles governing the protection of refugees
and, in particular, to abide by the provisions of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and of its
1967 Protocol and scrupulously to observe the principle whereby no refugee should be forcibly returned to a
country where he fears persecution;
(c) Stressed that, in keeping with the universal character of the problem of refugees, many more States
should accede to international instruments relating to the status of refugees and that these instruments be fully
implemented according to both the letter and spirit in which they had been conceived;
(d) Considered that a conference of plenipotentiaries should be convened, as envisaged, to consider the
draft Convention on Territorial Asylum, and recommended that the cost involved in this conference be borne
from the regular budget of the United Nations;
(e) Recommended that the views of the Committee in (d) above be conveyed to the General Assembly of
the United Nations;
(f) Emphasized that, in keeping with the fundamental principles of family unity, members of refugee
families should be given every opportunity to be reunited by being allowed to leave their country of origin;
(g) Welcomed the High Commissioner's continuing efforts to survey individual cases with a view to
identifying major protection problems and recommended that Governments should contribute to achieving rapid
solutions to such problems;
(h) Decided on the establishment of a Sub-Committee of the Whole on International Protection which
would meet, in principle, during the sessions of the executive committee and would study in more detail some of
the more technical aspects of the protection of refugees and would report to the Committee on its findings.
1
Contained in United Nations General Assembly Document No. 12A (A/10012/Add.1)
1