A Promise Worth Keeping: Refugee Congress Marks 75 Years of the Refugee Convention
Seventy-five years ago today, on July 28, 1951, the nations of the world made a promise. Emerging from the wreckage of a war that killed more than 11 million Jewish, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, and other targeted community members, and left millions more as refugees – many of whom were turned away at closed borders and sent back to their deaths – governments came together and agreed on a simple, hard-won principle: a person fleeing persecution has the right to seek safety, and no country should force them back into danger.
That promise became the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. For three-quarters of a century, it has been the foundation of refugee protection everywhere in the world. Today, Refugee Congress marks its 75th anniversary not only as a moment of remembrance, but as a call to renew that promise, because the people it protects are our members, our neighbors, and ourselves.
The Refugee Convention Origin
The Refugee Convention is the international community's answer to a question every generation eventually faces: What do we owe to people who have lost everything and have nowhere safe to go?
The Convention defines a refugee as a person outside their country who cannot return because of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. It sets out the rights that refugees are owed, including access to work, education, identity documents, and the courts. And at its heart is a single principle that anchors everything else: non-refoulement, the rule that no country may return a person to a place where their life or freedom would be threatened. Its 1967 Protocol removed the original geographic and time limits, extending these protections to refugees everywhere, regardless of when or where they were forced to flee.
The United States signed onto the 1967 Protocol, and the principles of the Convention are woven directly into American law through the Refugee Act of 1980. When we speak of the Refugee Convention, we are not describing a distant document. We are describing commitments the United States chose to make, the legal and moral framework that has allowed generations of refugees to rebuild their lives here, and the acknowledgment that our communities in the U.S. should be places that welcome.
“The 1951 Refugee Convention made my journey to safety possible. After spending 18 years as a refugee, it gave me hope that protection, dignity, and a new beginning were possible. Because of refugee protection, I was able to rebuild my life in the United States, become a U.S. citizen, raise my family in safety, and continue serving my community through advocacy and leadership. As we mark the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, I want Americans to know that it is more than a legal document—it is a promise that people fleeing persecution deserve protection and the opportunity to contribute. My story, and the stories of countless others, show that when refugees are welcomed, communities become stronger.”
“When my country failed to protect me, the 1951 Refugee Convention and the international refugee protection system opened the door to safety. Leaving Iraq was one of the most disempowering experiences of my life. I had no voice and no control over my future. Yet knowing that I had international protection gave me hope. Like many refugees, I had no idea where my journey would lead. As a refugee with a disability, I was given the opportunity to rebuild my life in the United States.
Today, I am an Assistant Professor of Social Work, educating future social workers and conducting research to improve the lives of refugees and people with disabilities. My story is a reminder that refugee protection does more than save lives; it creates opportunities for people to contribute, lead, and give back. Despite every challenge, the promise of America continues to inspire hope for refugees seeking safety and a chance to rebuild their lives.”
Why It Matters, Especially Now
A treaty signed in 1951 can sound like history. It is not. The Convention matters today for the same reason it mattered then: people are still being forced from their homes, in greater numbers than at any point since it was written.
At least 117 million people are now displaced worldwide. Wars, persecution, and collapse continue to push families across borders in search of the one thing the Convention was built to guarantee safety. At the very moment the need is greatest, the systems meant to provide protection are under immense strain and, in some places, under deliberate attack. Funding for humanitarian aid is being cut. Resettlement has slowed to a trickle. And a rising tide of rhetoric is trying to convince the public that people fleeing for their lives are a threat to be managed rather than human beings to be protected.
This is exactly the moment the Convention was designed for. Its principles were written by people who had seen what happens when nations decide that some human beings are disposable. The 75th anniversary is a reminder of what is at stake when protection is treated as optional and a chance to reaffirm, clearly and without apology, that the right to seek asylum is not negotiable.
We believe the honest story is also the hopeful one. Refugees are not a burden a country absorbs; they are teachers, nurses, business owners, faith leaders, and public servants who strengthen the communities that welcome them. Protecting refugees is a legal obligation, a moral commitment, and an investment in the kind of country and world we want to live in.
“As a former refugee, I am living proof of what is possible when protection is met with opportunity. The 1951 Refugee Convention made my journey to safety possible by ensuring that people fleeing conflict and persecution have the opportunity to rebuild their lives with dignity and hope. Because of refugee protection, I was able to become the first college graduate in my family and grow into a nonprofit executive, global mental health professional, and advocate serving forcibly displaced communities around the world.
As we mark the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, I want Americans to know that refugee protection is not only about offering safety in a moment of crisis. It is about investing in human potential. Refugees become leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals, taxpayers, and members of the workforce who contribute to our economy, strengthen our communities, and help our nation thrive.
The Refugee Convention still matters because it reflects our shared humanity and reminds us that when we protect refugees, we do more than save lives. We create opportunities for individuals, families, and entire communities to flourish for generations.”
Refugee Congress and the Convention: A Shared Story
For Refugee Congress, this anniversary is personal. Our organization was born from one of these very milestones.
In 2011, as the world marked the 60th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, the UN Refugee Agency convened former refugees from across the United States in Washington for a time of reflection and to consider a key question: What do refugees themselves believe protection should look like? Out of that gathering and with the conviction that the people most affected by refugee policy must have a permanent seat at the table where it is made, Refugee Congress was formed. We are now the national organization built and led by people who have lived through forced displacement. Our Delegates, elected to represent their states, carry that lived experience directly into decision-making spaces, from the halls of city councils to Capitol Hill, and to international gatherings with global leaders.
When we speak about the Refugee Convention, we are speaking about the framework that made our own lives, and our own organization, possible. The 60th anniversary gave rise to Refugee Congress. The 75th finds us more determined than ever to defend the promise that brought us here.
“The Refugee Convention meant that when I fled my country of Bosnia and Herzegovina that I was recognized under international law as someone entitled to protection. It gave the United States a legal framework to grant me refugee status, rather than turning me away or leaving my fate to chance.
The Refugee Convention isn’t an abstract international document — it’s the reason people like me are your neighbors, your coworkers, your children’s classmates, and yes, your fellow Americans. It exists because the world once agreed that no one should be forced to return to danger, and that agreement is being tested today more than ever. It matters because behind every statistic is someone who once stood exactly where I did – with nothing, and everything to lose – hoping the world would keep its word.”
The Anniversary's Meaning Here at Home
The strength of the Refugee Convention has never been measured only in treaties and declarations. It is measured in what happens in American towns and cities, in the family reunited after years apart, the child enrolled in a local school, the neighbor who becomes a citizen and votes for the first time. That is where the Convention lives, and that is where its erosion is being felt most sharply right now.
In the United States today, the protections the Convention inspired are being pulled back in ways that carry real human cost. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has been suspended, with admissions for the current fiscal year capped at the lowest ceiling in the program's history. Tens of thousands of people who were already vetted, approved, and in many cases packed and ready to travel have seen the door closed in front of them. Private sponsorship programs that let ordinary Americans welcome refugees directly have been ended. We have shut down the right of people to seek asylum at our shores, and are now stripping away even our temporary protection pathways.
The consequences reach people who are already here. Resettlement agencies that spent decades building the infrastructure of welcome through English classes, job placement, trauma counseling, and help finding that first apartment have lost federal funding, laid off staff, and in some cases shut their doors. Refugees who followed every rule and built their lives in this country now face reviews of their status, new detention authorities, and policies designed to discourage them from accessing the support they are legally entitled to. Access to asylum at the border has been sharply restricted, testing the very principle of non-refoulement on American soil.
These are the daily realities in our Delegates’ communities we come from and serve. When resettlement stops, families stay separated. When asylum narrows, people fleeing persecution are turned back toward the danger they ran from. On this 75th anniversary, we must ask Americans a direct question: Is this who we want to be? Refugee Congress, and a majority of Americans, believes the answer is no and that this country is at its best when it remembers that welcoming the persecuted is not a departure from American values but one of their clearest expressions.
“The Refugee Convention is not an abstract international agreement for me. It is part of the reason I had a chance to find safety and start over. I left Iran with very little certainty about what my future would look like. Refugee protection gave me the opportunity to rebuild my life, continue my education, become a father, and now advocate for refugee rights and for others who are walking the same difficult path I once walked. That is why the Refugee Convention still matters to me. Behind every refugee is a person who deserves safety, dignity, and the chance to build a future.”
Our Call to Action
Seventy-five years ago, the world decided that people fleeing persecution deserve protection. On this anniversary, Refugee Congress calls on the United States, on other countries, and on all who share this commitment not simply to honor that decision, but to defend it.
"Refugee Congress exists because of this Convention. Fifteen years ago, a group of refugees gathered in Washington, DC and out of an event they built a community. A national refugee-led organization that would reshape the way we think about advocacy, and the way in which policies and programs are created,” said Nili Sarit Yossinger, Executive Director. “Refugee Congress has brought lived experience directly into the work of advocacy, shifted how we speak about refugees to center how important they are to our communities, co-created the U.S. Refugee Advisory Board to ensure refugees have a voice in global solutions to forced displacement, and invested in the future of the next generation of refugee leaders through the National Young Adult Leadership Council. The work we do is only possible because of the Convention. And we remain committed to defending it."
The Refugee Convention has protected millions of lives across three generations. It is up to all of us to decide if we will protect the next generation in our courtrooms, legislatures, and communities across this country and the world. Refugee Congress was born from this promise. We intend to keep it.
