There is concern that measures taken by some powerful states now threaten to undermine refugee protection and are contrary to standards set out in conclusions adopted in previous years by the Executive Committee (Excom) of the Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Cases cited include the United States (US) Government policy of forcibly returning direct to Haiti Haitian asylum-seekers intercepted at sea, and recent conclusions and resolutions agreed by member states of the European Community (EC). This paper calls on the governments in the Excom, meeting in Geneva in October 1993, to take a number of immediate steps to support the international system of refugee protection, and take action on policies which threaten it.