The Implementation Of The Principle Of Non Refoulement In Africa The Protection Of The Rights Of Refugees In Situation Of Massive Influx

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2017 in the subject Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: Principle of non-refoulement, University of Yaoundé I (Catholic Institut of Yaoundé (Cameroon) - Academy of Peace and Human Rights at the Catholic University of Central Africa (Cameroon)), course: Refugee Protection, language: English, abstract: There are many international standards or instruments which protect the rights of refugees to non-refoulment. These instruments are: the United Nations convention relating to the status of refugees of 1951 and its protocol of 1967, the international covenant on civil and political rights of 1966, the United Nations convention against torture of 1989 and the Convention of the Organization of the African Unity governing the specific aspects of refugee problems in Africa adopted in 1969. These instruments play a great role in favoring the implementation of the principle of non-refoulement.

Through a balanced account, this monograph interrogates the tenets of the principle of non-refoulement and takes the view that the theory and the practical approach to this principle must find a harmonious intersection. The implementation of the principle of non-refoulement illustrates a mixed result. While jurisprudence continuously relies on the traditional approach to the principle, state parties have bent and narrowed its implementation in order to cater to contemporary security threats. This monograph takes the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing a reliable and in-depth guide into refugee law by explaining the intellectual, legal and pragmatic challenges posed in interpreting the principle of non-refoulement. It further explores the concepts of the traditional and non-pronounced customary approach to the principle in both the court room and the political arena. In this regard, it proposes amendments to ensure an equitable balance between protection of state security and promotion of the rights of refugees. This monograph is divided into five chapters, each dealing with a specific angle to the principle of non-refoulement.

The international refugee regime is fundamentally broken. Designed in the wake of World War II to provide protection and assistance, the system is unable to address the record numbers of persons displaced by conflict and violence today. States have put up fences and adopted policies to deny, deter, and detain asylum seekers. People recognized as refugees are routinely denied rights guaranteed by international law. The results are dismal for the millions of refugees around the world who are left with slender prospects to rebuild their lives or contribute to host communities. T. Alexander Aleinikoff and Leah Zamore lay bare the underlying global crisis of responsibility. The Arc of Protection adopts a revisionist and critical perspective that examines the original premises of the international refugee regime. Aleinikoff and Zamore identify compromises at the founding of the system that attempted to balance humanitarian ideals and sovereign control of their borders by states. This book offers a way out of the current international morass through refocusing on responsibility-sharing, seeing the humanitarian-development divide in a new light, and putting refugee rights front and center.

This book examines the socio-economic rights challenges of refugees and asylum seekers in Africa. It seeks to fill a major gap in the literature by providing a nuanced discussion of the barriers to the realisation of the socio-economic rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Africa. It equally aims to provide some concrete recommendations to African governments towards the realisation of the socio-economic rights of refugees and asylum seekers. With the aid of lessons from selected African countries, this book highlights the gaps, challenges and good practices regarding the realisation of the socio-economic rights of refugees and asylum seekers in the region. The book will be useful to researchers, students, academicians, policymakers, and international organisations or institutions interested in advancing the rights of refugees and asylum seekers.

2. The role of UNHCR

General criticism. 11. Recent development.

The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees adopted on 28 July 1951 in Geneva continues to provide the most comprehensive codification of the rights of refugees yet attempted. Consolidating previous international instruments relating to refugees, the 1951 Convention with its 1967 Protocol marks a cornerstone in the development of international refugee law. At present, there are 149 States Parties to one or both of these instruments, expressing a worldwide consensus on the definition of the term refugee and the fundamental rights to be granted to refugees. These facts demonstrate and underline the extraordinary significance of these instruments as the indispensable legal basis of international refugee law. This Commentary provides for a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol on an article-by-article basis, exposing the interrelationship between the different articles and discussing the latest developments in international refugee law. In addition, several thematic contributions analyse questions of international refugee law which are of general significance, such as regional developments, the interrelationship between refugee law and general human rights law, as well as the relationship between refugee law and the law of the sea.

Temporary protection is a flexible tool of international protection, which offers sanctuary to those fleeing humanitarian crises, and currently affects the lives and legal status of millions of forced migrants. However, the content, boundaries and legal foundation of temporary protection, remain largely undefined or unsettled. There are only a few instruments that provide guidance to states on how to respond to mass influx situations and how to implement temporary protection regimes. In Temporary Protection in Law and Practice, Meltem Ineli-Ciger takes a step towards clarifying those undefined aspects of temporary protection, by examining temporary protection’s legal foundation in international law and its relationship with the Refugee Convention. The book also reviews temporary protection policies in Europe, Southeast Asia, Turkey and the United States, with a view to identifying elements that enhance and compromise the legality and viability of temporary protection regimes. Building on this analysis and legal limitations to the freedom of states to conceptualize different aspects of temporary protection, this book provides guidance to states on how to introduce and implement a viable temporary protection regime, which operates within the boundaries of international law and international human rights law.

Millions of people are forced to flee their homes as a result of various forms of persecution. The instruments to secure international protection are the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. This book examines challenges to the Convention.

(Ii) The UNHCR Statute.