Australia Deposits Accession to Convention on Status of Refugees

Here, this afternoon, Australia took the final action needed to bring the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees into force under international law on 22 April. William D. Forsyth (right), Australia's Permanent Representative to the UN, deposited his Government's instrument of accession to the Convention with UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld (left). As a result, the Convention will come into force, after 90 days, in his country and in Belgium, Denmark, the German Federal Republic, Luxembourg and Norway, which previously have ratified it.

The Convention, which was adopted at a 26-nation U.N. conference in Geneva in July 1951, establishes minimum rights for refugees under the mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, including the right to asylum, to work, to education, to public relief and to freedom of religion; it also establishes a procedure for issuance of travel documents to refugees.

Today's ceremony was recorded over UN radio facilities.