Straw calls for asylum reform
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has called for international asylum laws to be reformed to stop terrorists exploiting the protection they offer.
Speaking to the United Nations general assembly in New York, he said the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees “cannot be allowed to shelter those involved in terrorism”.
Mr Straw emphasised that he was “proud” of the Convention, but supported Russia’s draft resolution for the Security Council, which calls on the UN to see how it can prevent terrorists sheltering behind refugee status.
“Asylum is not an unqualified right: it does not apply to anyone who has committed a war crime, a crime against humanity, or other serious crime, or who is guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations,” he said.
“We must never stoop to the level of the terrorist . But we cannot let terrorists exploit a protection designed for the persecuted, not the persecutors.”
The Foreign Secretary outlined two other reform measures for the UN: taking a broader approach to threats from poverty, disease and environmental degradation; and being more prepared to intervene in the affairs of other sovereign states.
He said nations should do more to meet the Millennium Development Goals and act quickly on climate change, not just for humanitarian reasons but also to reduce the stresses on states and peoples that affected the world’s collective security.
“We can’t have security without development, or development without security,” he added.
On collective action, he said that where nations “abused” their own people, they should be dealt with by the Security Council under the powers in the UN Charter and various conventions such as the 1948 Genocide Convention.
“We have not however always lived up to these high expectations – as the tragedies of Rwanda and Bosnia ten years ago remind us. But today we must resolve to do so and to engage – both in situations of humanitarian catastrophe or grave violations of international humanitarian law, and in the face of other threats to international peace and security.
“The principle of non-interference has to be qualified by a duty to protect, especially where governments are failing in that duty,” he said.
