Breaking the rules / by Alexander Casella.

Spanning a period of twenty-one years, the Vietnamese "boat people" exodus was the last major refugee crisis of the Cold War. The international response agreed on in Geneva in 1979 was in line with Western Cold War values, but by 1988 it had begun to unravel. The new international response took the form of the Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indochinese Refugees (CPA), which was in place from 1989 to 1996. This paper offers a detailed look at the process of negotiating the CPA, its contents, how it was received, and its implementation. At the time it was agreed, the CPA was revolutionary in two ways: first, it was comprehensive, and second, it was predicated on the right of Vietnamese boat people to land and to be processed for refugee status. As a result, the CPA both saved lives and marked the transition from blanket recognition of refugee status to individual status determination -- all in a region whose countries had not ratified the Refugee Convention." -- Publisher's web site.