Introduction

UNHCR provides these comments as the agency entrusted by the United Nations GeneralAssembly with the responsibility for providing international protection to refugees andother persons within its mandate, and for assisting governments in seeking permanentsolutions to the problem of refugees1. As set forth in its Statute, UNHCR fulfils itsinternational protection mandate by, inter alia, "[p]romoting the conclusion and ratificationof international conventions for the protection of refugees, supervising their applicationand proposing amendments thereto." UNHCR's supervisory responsibility under its Statuteis reiterated in Article 35 of the1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees(“herinafter; the 1951 Convention”) according to which State parties undertake to “co-operate with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees […] in theexercise of its functions, and shall in particular facilitate its duty of supervising theapplication of the provisions of the Convention”. The same commitment is included inArticle II of the1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees(“the 1967 Protocol”)."Considering the short deadline given by the Danish government, the Office has not hadadequate opportunity to analyze the proposal, but will limit itself to make a fewobservations relating to the interpretation of Article 24 of the1951 Convention relating tothe Status of Refugees.UNHCR reserves the right, once adequate analysis is completed,to provide further detailed and public comments to the legislation, and to further elaborateany opinion provided in these preliminary, and necessarily incomplete, comments.

Proposed amendments concerning old age pension

The current legislation from 1984 relating to old-age pensions ensured refugees the sameterms as Danish nationals by including the period of residence in the country of origin inthe calculation for the entitlement to old age pension. However, according to the proposedamendments, the period of residence in the country of origin shall no longer be taken intoaccount when calculating refugees’ entitlement to old-age pension.Similar to immigrants and nationals, who have lived abroad, refugees must from now onreside in Denmark for 40 years after the age of 15 in order to obtain full old-age pension.Many refugees will most likely not meet the requirement for full pension, and elderlybeneficiaries of international protection will have constrains in securing other forms ofpension due to their age. The minimum requirement of three-years-residence mayexclude some refugees from so-called “fraction pension”. As a consequence, they will notbe entitled to other social benefits either which pensioners enjoy, such as housing, heatingand health allowance. They will consequently be in a particularly vulnerable situation,which hinders their successful integration into the society.Article 24(1)(b) ofthe 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugeesprovides thatrefugees lawfully staying in a state party should be accorded the same treatment as isaccorded to nationals with regard to social security, including old age pension. This right islimited in situations where part of the social benefit would ordinarily be paid by anothercountry e.g. where the entitlement has been accrued in the country of origin or firstasylum. With respect to social security, refugees should be afforded the same standard oftreatment as nationals. In some situations however, this may include granting them certainbasic social security benefits essential to secure a basic standard of living, such as old-age benefits, despite the fact that they may not have had the opportunity to contribute tothe relevant schemes dueinter aliato their short period of residence in the country ofasylum. It should be taken into consideration that in many instances refugees will be in anunfortunate and unfair situation since they generally cannot claim the social securitybenefits towards which they contributed in their country of origin.UNHCR does not consider the proposed amendments to sufficiently take into account thespecific situation of protection beneficiaries and further questions the legality of theproposed amendments. In view of the principle of non-discrimination, UNHCR thereforerecommends that the current provision (9) of the law on social pension is retained in orderfor beneficiaries of international protection to receive same benefits as the generalnational population, such as full age pension.

UNHCR’s Observations

on the proposed amendments to the Danish law on social pension

Introduction

Proposed amendments concerning old age pension