THE EXCLUSION CLAUSES UNDER INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE PROTECTION IN INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE LAW AND THE STATUS OF CHILD SOLDIERS

The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees provides provisions for the well-founded fear of persecution of refugees in their countries to grant refugee status in cases where the state is unwilling or unable to protect him/her, while also stipulating that those who commit the most serious offenses are excluded. This is understandable both in terms of not being left unpunished and for the protection of public security in the country of asylum. However, what is critical to child soldiers applying for asylum is the fact that even if they meet conditions that are provided in the definition of refugees, they will not be able to access protection, and in particular the Refugee Convention refuses to protect it ‘due to the existence of grave breaches’. Furthermore, although there are provisions in Article 1 (F) of the Convention on the conditions of exclusion from international protection, there is no detailed regulation as to which conditions meet this, and the interpretation and application of these provisions raises certain problems. In this study, the conditions of exclusion from international protection referred to in Article 1 (F) of the Geneva Convention of 1951 will be analyzed and at the same time the situation of child soldiers who are not subject to a separate regulation under this article will be evaluated in the context of refugee law.