"Migrations in the 20 th century and their consequences – ways forward for history lessons within a European context"

5. International law and transborder population movements
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International law came into being as a law of correspondence between sovereign states. Today 
the international organisations operate on the level of international law as additional subjects of 
international law. Individuals or groups have no rights of their own at that level. This means 
that international law and population movements are tangential when people cross borders.
First in line are questions of human rights protection and the granting of asylum. Since the 
situation of minorities are often a cause of migration (examples of flight and expulsion), 
provision for minority protection and declarations of self-determination of peoples are also 
significant. In the 20th century international law sought above all to establish provisions 
covering these complex issues. The incorporation of this development into history teaching can 
illustrate how hard it is to broaden human rights protection. At the same time it becomes clear, 
when a historical view is taken, that tireless efforts to secure human rights pay off. The focus 
should therefore be not only on cases where international law failed but also on the progress 
achieved.
Refugee law
The sphere of refugees is where international law first succeeded in providing individuals 
expelled from the solidary societies of sovereign states with legal protection. This began in the 
League of Nations era and the United Nations Organisation has carried on that work.
The concept of "refugee" has been established in international law since the 1951 Geneva 
Convention on Refugees. The Contracting states are to afford protection (eg not returning 
them) and certain rights to "recognised" refugees but have no obligation to grant them asylum.
The definition formulated in the European context of that time (flight from totalitarian systems) 
proved too restrictive, as it excluded other causes and certain forms of flight. It is a tricky 
business to draw precise distinctions between forced displacement and flight or flight and 
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This theme was dealt with in a contribution by Thomas Silberhorn, Bayreuth University

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emigration. "National refugees" for example, who are taken in by a state in which they have 
family origins, do not fall into this category (eg French from Algeria, Poles from the territories 
allocated to the Soviet Union). Groups forcibly displaced within a state (eg deported ethnic 
minorities) enjoy hardly any protection from international law today. The United Nations is now 
working hard to broaden and adapt refugee law.
Human rights and migration
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) contains three articles applicable to 
migration problems:
- Article 13: "(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to 
his country". There is no mention, though, of a right to enter another country. Only international 
agreements (cf the Schengen Agreement) can provide a basis for the right of the citizens 
concerned to enter and stay in a country.
- Article 14: "(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from 
persecution". The article's second paragraph restricts this right to political persecution. Asylum-
seekers not claiming political persecution - and these constitute a large part of the migratory 
movements of the last third of the 20th century - are not granted such a right. One major 
shortcoming is that a right or entitlement to asylum does not yet exist. Not even the 1951
Geneva Convention on Refugees enshrines an individual right to asylum, although it does 
prohibit the expulsion, deportation or return of persecuted individuals to a state in which their life 
or freedom would be threatened.
- Article 15: "(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived 
of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality". This counters the problem of 
statelessness; however, there is no associated right of naturalisation.
Flight and asylum and freedom of movement are also addressed by the European Convention 
on Human Rights. All Council of Europe member states must ratify the Convention, though not 
necessarily the additional protocols. In the event of violations, application may be made to the 
European Court of Human Rights.
Expulsion
Expulsion is defined as any forcible displacement, induced by threat or use of violence or other 
coercive means, of individuals or groups from their ancestral areas of settlement to unfamiliar 
territory. Once a solution for mixed ethnic areas had emerged in the first half of the 20th century 
in resettlement and option treaties (cf the Treaty of Lausanne, which provided for the 
resettlement of Greeks and Turks), thoughts turned towards a ban on expulsion following the 
Second World War and, more recently, the civil wars and expulsions effected in the former 
Yugoslavia. Despite a multitude of efforts, there is still no formal ban on expulsion, although it 
may be derived from international law concerning war. Article 49 of the IVth Geneva 
Convention of 1949 prohibits transfers and deportations of civilian persons from occupied 
territory and of a country's own civilian population to an occupied area. It is true that 
reservations have limited the impact of the Convention to date. In 1977 the Convention was 
supplemented by two additional protocols, prohibiting expulsion on racist grounds.

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Other significant documents are as follows:
- International Covenant on civil and political rights (1966): Article 12 (liberty of movement within 
one's country and the right to enter one's own country), Article 27 (protection of minorities)
- UN Resolution (1971) prohibiting measures forcing people to leave their homeland
- 4th additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights: Article 4 (prohibition of 
collective expulsion of aliens)
- Council of Europe Framework Convention for the protection of national minorities.
Despite all these promising initiatives, the problem has not yet been satisfactorily resolved, one 
of the reasons being that those responsible for enforcing international law have only half-
heartedly fulfilled their role. Only recently have there been signs of change, with abusive 
expulsions being punished, for example (Tribunal proceedings concerning Rwanda and 
Yugoslavia).
Migration with the EU area
Within the EU area there are no restrictions on the freedom of movement of EU citizens. Under 
the Treaty of Amsterdam immigration and asylum policy was transferred from the 3rd pillar of 
the European Union to the European Community ("communitarisation") and given extensive 
law-making competence (see Article 61ff of the Treaty establishing the European Economic 
Community). The integration of the "Schengen Acquis" (
inter alia
the Schengen Agreement and 
the 1990 Schengen Implementation Convention) was of tremendous significance for 
immigration policy, and the content of the 1990 Dublin Agreement is important as regards 
asylum policy.