The Origins of Asylum

The concept of asylum has been in existence for at least 3,500 years and is found, in one form or another, in the texts and traditions of many different ancient societies. In the middle of the second millennium BCE, as entities resembling modern states with clearly defined borders began to develop across the Near East, several treaties were concluded between rulers which included provisions for the protection of international fugitives. For example, a Hittite king drew up a treaty with the ruler of a different country, in which he declared "Concerning a refugee, I affirm on oath the following: when a refugee comes from your land into mine he will not be returned to you. To return a refugee from the land of the Hittites is not right."

In Ancient Greece, numerous internal religious sanctuaries were established. However, the idea of external asylum in another country also existed. Herodotus cites the case of a Phyrgian, Adrastus, who fled to Sardis in Lydia (now Turkey) after accidentally killing his brother. He presented himself at the palace of Croesus, who welcomed him and told him he could stay as long as he wished. Asylum also features in Ancient Greek drama: in Sophocle's tragedy Oedipus at Colonus the Athenian king, Theseus, give a compassionate reception to the exiled Oedipus.

In AD 8, the Roman poet Ovid was banished by the Emperor Augustus to Tomis on the Black Sea (now Constanta in Romania), on the extreme edge of the Empire. As he records in Tristia (Sorrows), the Tomitans received him warmly. Although he continued to perceive them as "barbarians", Ovid was touched by their hospitality, learned their language -Getic and remained among them until his death in AD 17.

The Old Testament Book of Numbers shows God instructing Moses to designate six cities as places of refuge, "both for the children of Israel, and for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them" (35: 9-15). In the New Testament, St. Matthew's Gospel portrays the infant Christ and his family as refugees fleeing into Egypt. Christian sanctuaries were first recognized under Roman law in the 4th century AD, and their physical scope was gradually extended. In the 6th century, the Emperor Justinian-anticipating modern asylum laws-limited the privilege of refuge to people not guilty of serious crimes.

During the early years of Islam, the Prophet Mohammed and his followers were forced to take refuge from those who felt threatened by the growing power of the new faith. The Hijra, his flight from Mecca to Medina in AD 622, marks the beginning of the Islamic era according to the religious calendar. The Koran spells out the importance of the notion of asylum in Islam: "those who have believed and have chosen exile and have fought for the Faith, and those who have granted them help and asylum, these are the true believers" (8: 74).

From early times, asylum had both political and humanitarian dimensions. The ancient practice of granting internal sanctuary-often on a temporary rather than permanent basis-in holy places reflected respect for the deity and the Church, while the grant of asylum by kings, republics and free cities was a manifestation of sovereignty.

As the power of the monarchy grew, the right to grant asylum increasingly became the prerogative of the state the inviolability of internal asylum in holy places declined correspondingly. In the 16th century, for example, King Henry VIII of England abolished many religious sanctuaries and nominated seven "cities of refuge" in their stead. Although first recorded use of the term "the Right of Asylum occurred as early as 1725, asylum continued to be viewed more as a prerogative of the Sovereign than as an individual right to protection until the early years of the 20th century.

From The State of the World's Refugees 1993: The Challenge of Protection UNHCR (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1993)