The legal protection of refugees

For a long time, the object of international law was limited to mere inter-state relations. In other words, States were originally the only subjects of international law.Moreover, since an individual was not a subject of international law, he or she could not bring an action at the international level if he or she was outside his or her own country and was the victim of treatment that violated international law. Only the State of which that person was a national was entitled to bring an action against the State that committed the offences and could exercise diplomatic protection on behalf of its nationals. Therefore, some persons, in particular refugees, did not benefit from any effective protection at the international level because, although they were able to keep the citizenship of their country of origin, they were unable or unwilling to avail themselves of this protection. Thus, the purpose of this study was to research the legal regime, the institutional framework and the mechanisms of protection of refugees in international law.