Happiness is: official identification documents.

Refugees – the result of persecution, armed conflict and human rights violations

”Concerning a refugee, I affirm on oath the following: when a refugee comes from your land into mine he will not be returned to you. To return a refugee from the land of the Hittits is not right”
Declaration by a Hittite king in a treaty, from the middle of the second millennium B.C.

History of International Protection

The concept of asylum, from the Greek word asylon – inviolable, has been in existence for at least 3,500 years. But the beginning of the modern tradition of asylum in Europe is marked by the flight of 250,000 French Protestants, Huguenots, in 1685 who received refuge in different countries. After the French revolution in 1789, the category of refugees fleeing political rather than religious persecution began to gain prominence. In the aftermath of the World War I refugees and displaced people were scattered in a variety of countries. The League of Nations was established in 1920 and the conviction that the international community of states has a duty to provide refugees with protection and find solutions to their problems dates from this time. The Norwegian diplomat and Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen, the first High Commissioner for Refugees, is regarded as the founding father of the international system of protection and assistance to refugees as it is known today. He argued that alleviating human suffering is indeed a matter of state, not simply charity. Under the auspices of the League of Nations Fridtjof Nansen organised massive relief efforts in large-scale humanitarian operations and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work. In the 1930´s, a succession of international refugee organisations were charged with resettling Jews and others who were fleeing Nazi persecution.