難民（Refugee）

1951年聯合國難民地位公約及其議定書對難民的定義是離開本國的人，這些人因種族、宗教、國籍、社會團體或政治見解等因素遭受迫害或面臨被迫害的恐懼，因此不能或不願返回母國。「難民」一詞與「境內流民」不同，後者指離開家園，但未離開其母國者，他們不在難民公約的保障範圍裡，但「境內流民指導原則」提供了相同的保障。

和所有人一樣，難民有權享有適當的生活水準、足夠的糧食、住所、以及身心健康的權利。然而，對難民而言，最基本的需要是安全（身體上的安全），由於其本國無法滿足他們在安全上的需求，因此，難民公約締約國的首要義務，即是不將難民遣返至可能會遭受迫害的國家，給予難民身份常被形容為由國際來代替其本國或居住國家，對難民提供保護。

In the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, a refugee is defined as a person outside of his or her country of nationality who is unable or unwilling to return because of persecution or a wellfounded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. The term is to be distinguished from internally displaced persons (q.v.) who have had to leave their homes, but have remained in their countries; these are not protected under the refugee treaties,although the Guiding Principles for Internal Displacement (q.v.) awards them some protection. Of the rights enjoyed by the refugees, such as employment, housing and public education, etc., the most crucial is the right to physical security. Therefore, the state parties to the Convention have the duty not to place them in harm's way. The granting of refugee status is usually regarded as a promise of protection by theinternational community.

資料來源：東吳大學張佛泉人權研究中心編纂：《人權字典》（臺北市：教育部，2007年6月，第一版一刷），頁170。