Introducing International Refugee Law as a Scholarly Field

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Costello Cathryn ◽  
Foster Michelle ◽  
McAdam Jane
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
International Law ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
Refugee Studies ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
The Future ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
International Refugee Law

This introductory chapter provides an overview of international refugee law. Since the adoption of the Refugee Convention, international refugee law has emerged as a dynamic and ever-challenging area of international law, particularly as its relationship to other branches of international law continues to be explored and understood. The chapter reflects on the emergence of international refugee law as a scholarly sub-discipline in the twentieth century, and its role within the wider area of refugee studies. It focuses on the important interface between scholarship and praxis in the sub-discipline’s development, as well as the field’s methodological strengths and weaknesses. Finally, it presents some observations about the future of international refugee law, identifying potential challenges and opportunities.

Alternative paths to refugee and asylum seeker protection in Malaysia and Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atin Prabandari ◽  
Yunizar Adiputera
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
International Law ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
International Refugee Law ◽  
The One

This article explores how refugees in non-signatory countries in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia, have some protection through alternative paths under international refugee law. These two countries provide forms of protection even if they are not States Parties to the Refugee Convention. These two case studies show that the governance of protection for refugee and asylum seekers is provided through alternative paths, even in the absence of international law and statist processes. These alternative paths offer a degree of meaningful protection, even if this is not tantamount to resettlement. Alternative paths of protection are initiated mainly by non-state actors. The states try to manage alternative protective governance to secure their interests by maintaining their sovereignty, on the one hand, and performing humanitarian duties on the other. In this regard, Indonesia and Malaysia have resorted to meta-governance to balance these two concerns.

Gender and the boundaries of international refugee law: Beyond the category of ‘gender-related asylum claims’

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-397
Author(s):  
Christel Querton
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
General Rule ◽  
Legal Obligation ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
General Acceptance ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
Distinct Category ◽  
Treaty Interpretation ◽  
International Refugee Law ◽  
Human Rights Norms

The adoption of gender guidelines aiming to ensure consistency in gender-sensitive interpretation of the UN Refugee Convention definition demonstrates a general acceptance that gender is relevant to the question of who is a refugee. However, there is evidence that States have failed to adequately undertake the process of gender-sensitive interpretation and implement these guidelines comprehensively. Accordingly, this article argues that the general rule of treaty interpretation in international law enables the identification of a legal obligation of State Parties to the Refugee Convention to take gender into account when interpreting the refugee definition. The precise scope and nature of the duty of States to take gender into account is identified through a dynamic approach to interpretation by reference to international human rights norms. Overall, this article claims that the conceptualisation of a legal obligation in international law to interpret the refugee definition in a way that takes gender into account is inhibited by the development of a distinct category of ‘gender-related asylum claims’ within gender and refugee law scholarship. Consequently, this article presents a challenge to the borders implicit in the category of ‘gender-related asylum claims’ by revisiting the boundaries of international refugee law.

Part II Sources, Ch.13 Customary Refugee Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lambert Hélène
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
Treaty Law ◽  
International Refugee Law ◽  
The Right ◽  
To Receive

This chapter explores customary refugee law. Refugee law is primarily treaty law. However, many of the major refugee-receiving countries are not parties to either the Refugee Convention or the Refugee Protocol, for example Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Iran, Jordan, and Lebanon. Hence, customary international refugee law can be critically important in the identification of key principles of refugee protection and as an indication of what is permitted or not. While customary international law may not play as significant a role in refugee law as it does in other areas of international law, there are at least three practices of refugee protection aimed at safeguarding access and admission to refugee protection for which varying degrees of agreement exist in favour of a rule (or emerging rule) of customary law: non-refoulement, temporary refuge, and the right to be granted (to receive) asylum. These practices are deeply intertwined in their humanitarian purpose.

Refugee Chains

2018 ◽  
pp. 399-409
Author(s):  
Alison Kesby
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Burden Sharing ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
International Obligations ◽  
The Law ◽  
International Refugee Law ◽  
A Chain

This chapter uses the object and concept of a chain to examine international refugee law which is shown to be a chain of shifting hue and state of repair. At certain points along its length its interwoven links of gold retain the echo of their humanitarian ideal, and at others its gaps and corrosion come into view, jar, and unsettle. Seen in one light, we see international refugee law as a prized area of international law: the means by which some of the world’s most vulnerable may obtain a recognized legal status and associated rights. In another, its weaknesses become all too apparent, whether the discrepancy between states’ international obligations and their implementation thereof (eg non-refoulement) or the constraints and limits of the Refugee Convention. Issues discussed include the stasis and dynamism of the law, gaps in protection, and ‘burden sharing’ among states.

scholarly journals Unfolding Africa's Impact on the Development of International Refugee Law

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Sara Palacios-Arapiles
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
International Refugee Law ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

Abstract This article traces the contributions of African states to the development of international refugee law and explores the role African human rights supervisory bodies have played in the interpretation and application of this field of law. While Africa's contributions to international refugee law are often overlooked, this article sets out to identify Africa's involvement in the drafting process of the UN Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. It also explores the legal framework for refugees in Africa, in particular the OAU Refugee Convention and the Bangkok Principles on Status and Treatment of Refugees, and the extent to which these two instruments have enriched international refugee law. The article argues that some of their provisions may provide evidence of customary rules of international law. Lastly, it examines some of the authoritative pronouncements made by African human rights supervisory bodies, in so far as they adopt a progressive approach to interpreting the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers.

On the Legality Under International Law of the Criminalization or Suppression of the Expression of Solidarity to Refugees

2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 102-113
Author(s):  
Obiora Chinedu Okafor
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
International Refugee Law

As Professor Jastram has noted, in and of itself, international refugee law is not explicit enough on the issue at hand. It is not clear enough in protecting persons who come in aid of, or show solidarity to, refugees or asylum-seekers. That does not mean, however, that no protections exist for them at all in other, if you like, sub-bodies of international law. This presentation focuses on the nature and character of those already existing international legal protections, as well as on any protection gaps that remain and recommendations on how they can be closed. It should be noted though that although the bulk of the presentation focuses on the relevant international legal protection arguments, this presentation begins with a short examination of the nature of the acts of criminalization and suppression at issue.

Climate Displacement and the Legal Gymnastics of Justice: Is It All Political?

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-312
Author(s):  
Andrea C. Simonelli
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
Legal Remedy ◽  
The Future ◽  
Law And Justice ◽  
International Instruments

AbstractThe future for people becoming displaced due to climate processes is still unknown. The effects of climate change are more apparent every day, and those most acutely impacted are still unable to access an appropriate legal remedy for their woes. Two new books evaluate the limits to international legal protections and the application of justice. Climate Change, Disasters, and the Refugee Convention, by Matthew Scott, investigates the assumptions underpinning the dichotomy between refugees and those facing adversity due to climate-induced disasters. Climate Change and People on the Move: International Law and Justice, by Fanny Thornton, goes further by examining how justice is used—and curtailed—by international instruments of protection. Thornton's legal analysis is thorough and thoughtful, but also demonstrative of the limitations of justice when confined by historical precedent and political indifference. With so little still being done to hold industries to account, is it any surprise that the legal system is not yet ready to protect those harmed by carbon pollution? Demanding justice for climate displacees is an indictment of modern Western economics and development; it implicates entire national lifestyles and the institutions and people that support them.

Part I International Refugee Law— Reflections on the Scholarly Field, Ch.2 Race, Refugees, and International Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tendayi Achiume E
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
International Refugee Law ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Role Of Religion

The experiences of refugees are heavily mediated by race and ethnicity, and international law plays a significant role in this mediation—in some cases offering important protections, and in others entrenching discrimination and exclusion. This Chapter makes four contributions. First, it articulates a structural and intersectional account of race, racial discrimination and xenophobic discrimination as essential starting points for international legal analysis of race and refugees. This analysis includes the overlap and distinctions between racial and xenophobic discrimination, as well as the role of religion, class and gender in shaping racial discrimination against refugees. Secondly, it reviews the doctrine on race and refugees in international refugee law and international human rights law, and maps the attendant academic literature analyzing this law. Thirdly, the Chapter canvasses legal scholarship that has examined the structure, history and development of the international refugee regime in relation to race. Finally, it concludes with reflections on a research agenda on race and refugees.

Part IV Access to Protection and International Responsibility-Sharing, Ch.29 Smuggling of Migrants and Refugees

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schloenhardt Andreas
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
The Subject ◽  
International Responsibility ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
International Refugee Law

This chapter focuses on the smuggling of migrants in the context of refugee movements, and examines the scope and application of international law pertaining to these phenomena. The principal binding global instrument on this topic is the United Nations Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air which, on the surface, coexists alongside international refugee law in situations where smuggled migrants are seeking asylum. Although the Smuggling of Migrants Protocol expressly recognizes the protection afforded to refugees under international law, its interpretation, operation, and implementation often run into conflict with the Refugee Convention. All too frequently, measures to prevent and combat the smuggling of migrants focus exclusively on law enforcement, criminal justice, and restrictive border measures without recognizing the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and smuggled migrants, which are the subject of this chapter.

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