68 PROMOTING AND PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS Refugees fleeing conflicts and persecution are often in a very vulnerable situation. They have no protection from their own State – indeed, it is often their own Government that is threatening to persecute them. Refugees seeking asylum in another country usually constitute minorities in those societies and often face rejection, discrimination and sometimes even xenophobic attacks. Stateless persons and internally displaced persons are also often exposed to stigmatization and harassment. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2004)77 refers directly to the specific protection needs of minorities: principle 9 declares that “States are under a particular obligation to protect against the displacement of indigenous peoples, minorities, peasants, pastoralists and other groups with a special dependency on and attachment to their lands”. Protection activities The principal role of UNHCR is to provide international protection for persons who have been forced to flee their country of origin. The organization ensures that the international standards of refugee protection guaranteed in the 1951 Convention, its 1967 Protocol, and various regional instruments and declarations, including the 1969 Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, of the Organization of African Unity, and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, Colloquium on the International Protection of Refugees in Central America, Mexico and Panama, are respected. Among the rights UNHCR works to protect is the fundamental right not to be forcibly returned, or refouled, to a territory where the refugee’s life, liberty or physical security may be threatened. The 1951 Convention also requires nondiscrimination in the application of its provisions and guarantees a certain standard of treatment in relation to education, housing and employment. UNHCR regularly issues notes and guidelines on a variety of matters related to the protection of persons of concern. Many such notes and guidelines relate specifically to national, ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities, including Guidelines Relating to the Eligibility of Slovak Roma Asylum Seekers, Note on the nationality status of the Urdu-speaking community in Bangladesh and UNHCR’s Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Individuals from Kosovo. According to the Statute of UNHCR (art. 8(a)), the High Commissioner for Refugees shall provide for the protection of refugees falling under the competence of his (or her) Office by “promoting the conclusion and ratification of international conventions for the protection of refugees, supervising their application and proposing amendments thereto”. The governing Executive Committee of UNHCR has adopted conclusions on international protection which relate to minority issues. In conclusions No. 68 and No. 71, the Executive Committee acknowledges that ethnic intolerance causes forced migration, and conclusion No. 80 states that upholding human rights for minorities is one way to combat displacement. Conclusion No. 102 stresses the importance of identifying the particular protection risks of minority refugees in order to protect all refugees. Although not formally binding, the Executive Committee’s conclusions constitute “soft law” which is relevant to the international protection regime, as they express opinions that are broadly representative of the views of the international community. When UNHCR is active in a minority group’s country of origin, whether to assist returnees or protect internally displaced persons, it has often been engaged in specific activities to protect and assist minority groups. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, for example, UNHCR facilitated durable solutions not only for refugees but also for minority groups whose members had been deported to other parts of the Soviet Union decades earlier. UNHCR was directly Available from www.unhcr.org/43ce1cff2.pdf (accessed 2 December 2012). 77