Complementary Protection
How international law protects people who do not meet the refugee definition but still cannot safely return home.
Beyond the 1951 Convention
The 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee narrowly: someone with a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. But many people who flee danger do not fit this definition. Someone fleeing generalized violence in a civil war may not face individual persecution. Someone at risk of torture may not be persecuted for one of the five Convention grounds. Someone whose country has been devastated by a natural disaster has no Convention claim at all.
Complementary protection fills this gap. It refers to international protection granted on the basis of instruments other than the 1951 Convention, particularly human rights treaties. The principle of non-refoulement under the Convention Against Torture, the ICCPR, and the European Convention on Human Rights prohibits returning anyone to a country where they face torture, cruel treatment, or a real risk to their life, regardless of whether they meet the refugee definition.