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Papua New Guinea's Accession To The 1951 Convention And The 1967 Protocol Relating To The Status Of Refugees, Ben Tsamenyi

Professor Ben M Tsamenyi

Papua New Guinea (PNG) acceded to the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol in 1986, after having initially declined to accept those instruments, which had been extended by the administering power, Australia. This article analyses the background to PNG's accession, and the reasons for its reservations to various provisions. PNG has, for some years, received refugees from West Irian, where the authority of the Indonesian Government continues to be challenged by the OPM (the Free Papua Movement). Before 1984, refugee arrivals were sporadic and involved relatively small groups of people; between February and June 1984, however, over ten thousand West …