The evolution of the international protection of refugees between the world wars

Abstract

Based on the analysis of a wide historical factual and theoretical material, the article examines the history of refugees and the legal protection of forced migrants. The authors investigate the reasons for occurrence of norms and mechanisms of legal protection of the forced migrants due to the major refugee crises in modern and contemporary history (special refugee status, a simplified naturalization procedure for refugees, political asylum, the principles of non-extradition and nonrefoulement) and their adaptation at the national level. The research reveals the causes of the formation of the system of international legal protection of the rights of forced migrants in the 1920s – 1930s. Significant efforts were made under the League of Nations to regulate legal refugee status at the international level, to internationally and legally consolidate criteria according to which the refugee status can be acquired (depending on the origin, the affiliation of an exile to a specific state or specific ethnicity and the principle of ‘lack of protection’ from the country of origin). Special attention is paid to the analysis of the institutions created within the League of Nations' structure in order to solve the problem of refugees and instruments and mechanisms for settling the legal status of refugees (e.g., the ‘Nansen passport’), the legal regulation of employment social welfare of forced migrants, the improvement of the international system of refugee protection. The low efficiency of the activities of the institutions of the League of Nations and legal mechanisms to solve the problem of refugees was established, and its causes were determined.