Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Drafted in response to the Holocaust, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) lays out the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people in the world irrespective of nationality, race, or other aspect of personal identity. The United Nations General Assembly adopted it on a 48-0 vote with eight countries abstaining, including the six Soviet bloc nations, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia.
The US was a lead signatory on the UDHR, though it was not legally binding. Article 14, which established the right of any person to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution in other countries, was a significant influence on the evolution of American immigration policy in the decades to come.
In 1951, the US and other countries adopted the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a set of guidelines, laws, and conventions that were a first effort to characterize and protect refugees. In the aftermath of World War II, this initial document was created primarily for the protection of European refugees. As the displacement of people surged globally during the 1960s, the United Nations adopted a second document known as the 1967 Protocol, which expanded refugee status to displaced people around the world.
The principles at the heart of these international documents influenced two key pieces of US legislation. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act) replaced the quota system with a preference system that identified seven categories of immigrants and set caps on the number of immigrants in each category that could be accepted in a year. Those seven categories included family members of US citizens and legal permanent residents, immigrants with employable skills, and refugees.
The Refugee Act of 1980 strengthened the country’s commitment to the human rights principles of the UDHR by establishing procedures for the review and processing of refugees and asylum seekers. Though it set a cap on the number of refugees the country would accept each year, no cap was set for asylum seekers.
