In November 1984, with the adoption of the Cartagena Declaration, the specific nature of the contemporary Central American refugee phenomenon was acknowledged, together with the inadequacy of traditional refugee definitions. The new concepts introduced by Cartagena were not incorporated into the domestic legislation of any State in the region, however, until Mexico adopted the Decree of 17 July 1990. The present article discusses this Decree, together with a similar initiative which ultimately led to the enactment of the Refugees Act in neighbouring Belize in 1991. This discussion examines how a decade-long experience of admitting refugees outside any systematic legal framework served to shape these two examples of significant refugee legislation. In Mexico, the inadequacy of the protection system is the result of the fact that the definitions of refugee and political asylee are considered mutually exclusive. Moreover, accession to the major international instruments relating to the status of refugees continues to lie somewhere in the future. Belize, in contrast, acceded to the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol in 1990, but immigration concerns and a delicate political balance have weakened the government's will to translate the provisions of these instruments into domestic practice and to enrich the refugee definition with Cartagena Declaration grounds. Earlier ad hoc protection mechanisms proved useful and generous in both States, but they eventually became discriminatory. The challenge facing Mexico and Belize is to achieve a smooth transition from such mechanisms to a comprehensive juridical status of general application. Since case law on Cartagena grounds is still virtually non-existent, refugee law practitioners will view the Mexican and Belizean experiments with particular interest. © 1992 Oxford University Press.

[No Keywords available]

[No Keywords available]