The right to seek and enjoy asylum is set out in international law in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948):
Article 14
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations
This right is elaborated in Article 1(A) of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees:
Article 1(A)
Defines a refugee as a person who “… owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”
