Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees

ARTICLE 7
Exemption from Reciprocity
1. Except where this Convention contains more favourable
provisions, a Contracting State shall accord to Refugees the same
treatment as is accorded to aliens generally.

2. After a period of three years’ residence, all Refugees shall
enjoy exemption from legislative reciprocity in the territory
of the Contracting States.

3. Each Contracting State shall continue to accord to
refugees the rights and benefits to which they were already
entitled, in the absence of reciprocity, at the date of entry into
force of this Convention for that State.

4. The Contracting States shall consider favourably the
possibility of according to refugees, in the absence of
reciprocity, rights and benefits beyond those to which they
are entitled according to paragraphs 2 and 3, and to extending
exemption from reciprocity to refugees who do not fulfil the
conditions provided for in paragraphs 2 and 3.

5. The provisions of paragraphs 2 and 3 apply :both to the
rights and benefits referred to in Articles 13, 18, 19, 21 and 22
of this Convention and to rights and benefits for which this
Convention does not provide.

ARTICLE 8
Exemption from Exceptional Measures
With regard to exceptional measures which may be taken
against the person, property or interests of nationals of a foreign
State, the Contracting States shall not apply such measures
to a refugee who is formally a national of the said State solely
on account of such nationality. Contracting States which,
under their legislation, are prevented from applying the general
principle expressed in this article, shall, in appropriate cases.
grant exemptions in favour of such refugees.

ARTICLE 9
Provisional Measures
Nothing in this Convention shall prevent a Contracting State,
in time of war or other grave and exceptional circumstances,
from taking provisionally measures which it considers to be
essential to the national security in the case of a particular
person, pending a determination by the Contracting State that
that person is in fact a refugee and that the continuance of such
measures is necessary in his case in the interests of national
security.

ARTICLE 10
Continuity of Residence
1. Where a refugee has been forcibly displaced during the
Second World War and removed to the territory of a Contracting
State, and is resident there, the period of such enforced
sojourn shall be considered to have been lawful residence
within that territory.

2. Where a refugee has been forcibly displaced during the
Second World War from the territory of a Contracting State
and has, prior to the date of entry into force of this
Convention, returned there for the purpose of taking up
Residence, the period of residence before and after such enforced
displacement shall be regarded as one uninterrupted period for
any purposes for which uninterrupted residence is required.

ARTICLE 11
Refugee Seamen
In the case of refugees regularly serving as crew members
on board a ship flying the flag of a Contracting State, that
State shall give sympathetic consideration to their establish-
ment on its territory and the issue of travel documents to
them or their temporary admission to its territory particularly
with a view to facilitating their establishment in another
country .

CHAPTER II. JURIDICAL STATUS

ARTICLE 12
Personal Status
1. The personal status of a refugee shall be governed by
the law of the country of his domicile or, if he has no domicile,
by the law of the country of his residence.

2. Rights previously acquired by a refugee and dependent on
personal status, more particularly rights attaching to marriage,
shall be respected by a Contracting State, subject to compliance,
if this be necessary, with the formalities required by the law
of that State, provided that the right in question is one which
would have been recognised by the law of that State had he not
become a refugee.

ARTICLE 13
Movable and Immovable Property
The Contracting States shall accord to a refugee treatment
as favourable as possible and, in any event, not less favourable
than that accorded to aliens generally in the same circumstances,
as regards the acquisition of movable and immovable
property and other rights pertaining thereto, and to leases and
other contracts relating to movable and immovable property.

ARTICLE 14
Artistic Rights and Industrial Property
In respect of the protection of industrial property, such as
inventions, designs or models, trade marks, trade names, and
of rights in literary, artistic and scientific works a refugee
shall be accorded in the country in which he has his habitual
residence the same protection as is accorded to nationals of
that country. In the territory of any other Contracting State
he shall be accorded the same protection as is accorded in
that territory to nationals of the country in which he has his
habitual residence.

ARTICLE 15
Right of Association
As regards non-political and non-profit-making associations
and trade unions the Contracting States shall accord to refugees
lawfully staying in their territory the most favourable treat-
ment accorded to nationals of a foreign country, in the same
circumstances.

ARTICLE 16
Access to Courts
1. A refugee shall have free access to the courts of law on
the territory of all Contracting States.

2. A refugee shall enjoy in the Contracting State in which
he has his habitual residence the same treatment as a national
in matters pertaining to access to the Courts, including legal
assistance and exemption from cautio judicatum solvi.

3. A refugee shall be accorded in the matters referred to in
paragraph 2 in countries other than that in which he has his
habitual residence the treatment granted to a national of the
country of his habitual residence.

CHAPTER III. GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT

ARTICLE 17
Wage-earning Employment
1. The Contracting States shall accord to refugees lawfully
staying in their territory the most favourable treatment accorded
to nationals of a foreign country in the same circumstances,
as regards the right to engage in wage-earning employment.

2. In any case, restrictive measures imposed on aliens or the
employment of aliens for the protection of the national labour
market shall not be applied to a refugee who was already
exempt from them at the date of entry into force of this
Convention for the Contracting State concerned, or who fulfils
one of the following conditions:

(a) He has completed three years’ residence in the country

(b) He has a spouse possessing the nationality of the country
of residence. A refugee may not invoke the benefits of this
provision if he has abandoned his spouse

(c) He has one or more children possessing the nationality
of the country of residence.

3. The Contracting States shall give sympathetic considera-
tion to assimilating the rights of all refugees with regard to
wage-earning employment to those of nationals, and in par-
ticular of those refugees who have entered their territory
pursuant to programmes of labour recruitment or under
immigration schemes.

ARTICLE 18

Self-employment
The Contracting States shall accord to a refugee lawfully
in their territory treatment as favourable as possible and, in
any event, not less favourable than that accorded to aliens
generally in the same circumstances, as regards the right to
engage on his own account in agriculture, industry, handicrafts
and commerce and to establish commercial and industrial
companies.

ARTICLE 19
Liberal Professions
1. Each Contracting State shall accord to refugees lawfully
staying in their territory who hold diplomas recognised by the
competent authorities of that State, and who are desirous of
practising a liberal profession, treatment as favourable as
possible and, in any event, not less favourable than that
accorded to aliens generally in the same circumstances.

2. The Contracting States shall use their best endeavours.
consistently with their laws and Constitutions to secure the
settlement of such refugees in the territories, other than the
metropolitan territory, for whose international relations they
are responsible.

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Constitutions, Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Refugees, country.