had restricted refugee status to those whose circumstances had come about "as a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951", as well as giving States party to the Convention the option of interpreting this as "events occurring in Europe" or "events occurring in Europe or elsewhere", the 1967 Protocol removed both the temporal and geographic restrictions. However, the Protocol gave those States which had previously ratified the 1951 Convention and chosen to use the geographically restricted definition the option to retain that restriction.