Signed 31 January 1967 Effective 4 October 1967 | Location New York Signatories 19 | |
 | ||
Parties Convention: 145Protocol: 146 Depositary Secretary-General of the United Nations | ||
The Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees is a key treaty in international refugee law which entered into force on 4 October 1967. 146 countries are parties to the Protocol.
Where the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees had restricted refugee status to those whose circumstances had come about "as a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951", as well as giving States party to the Convention the option of interpreting this as "events occurring in Europe" or "events occurring in Europe or elsewhere", the 1967 Protocol removed both the temporal and geographic restrictions. This was needed in the historical context of refugee flows resulting from decolonization. However, the Protocol gave those states which had previously ratified the 1951 Convention and chosen to use the geographically restricted definition the option to retain that restriction.