Next month will mark the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention. The treaty holds that refugees should not be returned to a country where they face threats to their life or freedom. Most countries have signed either the original convention or an additional 1967 protocol that updated the Convention language to remove time limitations included in the original agreement and to consider decolonization. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) implements the Convention among its signatories, ensuring that host countries respect refugee rights.

As the anniversary nears, there are two problems that need resolution if the Convention is to survive.