scholarly journals UNHCR and Current Challenges in International Refugee Protection

Refuge ◽  
2004 ◽  
pp. 6-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ninette Kelley ◽  
Jean-Francois Durieux
Keyword(s):  
International Protection ◽  
Multilateral Cooperation ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Durable Solutions ◽  
Do So

The international refugee protection regime has had both a successful and a troubled history. It has succeeded in providing international protection to millions of refugees when their own States have been unable or unwilling to do so. Despite this considerable achievement, the regime has at times failed to solve serious refugee protection problems and has not been able to effect durable solutions for many of the world’s refugees. This essay examines the current challenges to the regime from the perspectives of those most affected by them, recognizing that many of these challenges are not new. It examines how UNHCR’s mandate and activities have expanded to meet the larger number and diverse needs of those under its care. As well, it reviews the recent initiatives launched by UNHCR to strengthen international protection for refugees and expand the availability of durable solutions through enhanced multilateral cooperation.

Part V The Scope of Refugee Protection, Ch.47 Internal Displacement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kälin Walter
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Internal Displacement ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
International Protection ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Durable Solutions ◽  
Degree Of Convergence

This chapter discusses the protection of internally displaced persons (IDPs), who are all too often neglected, not only by their governments, but also by the international community. The experiences of refugees and IDPs have much in common. Thus, it is not surprising that social science approaches tend to lump refugees and IDPs together under the notion of ‘forced displacement’. By contrast, the chapter argues that refugee law and the law related to internal displacement are conceptually fundamentally different because IDPs remain citizens or habitual residents of their countries, and thus depend on the national protection of their governments, while refugees as foreigners are in need of international protection. Discussing the protection of IDPs from a comparative perspective, it analyses the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and their impact as a soft law instrument, as well as the legally binding Kampala Convention. Ultimately, IDP-related approaches to durable solutions can help to inform refugee law and policy, and there is already a degree of convergence between the two areas.

scholarly journals The Right to Dignity of Refugees: A Response to Fleur Johns

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 193-195
Author(s):  
Elspeth Guild
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Protection ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
International Refugee Law ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

Fleur Johns' thesis about the increasing role of data in the verification of the condition of the world and how this impacts on international law is stimulating and bears reflection. This is an extremely interesting and innovative approach to the issue of data and its role in state engagement with mass migration. From the perspective of a scholar on international refugee law, a number of issues arise as a result of the analysis. One of the contested aspects of mass migration and refugee protection is the inherent inconsistency between two ways of thinking about human rights—the first is the duty of (some) international organizations to protect human rights in a manner which elides human rights and humanitarian law, and the second is the right of the individual to dignity, the basis of all human rights according to the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1949. The first enhances the claims of states to sovereign right to control their borders (mediated through some international organizations), while the second recognizes the international human rights duties of states and international organizations to respect the dignity of people as individuals (including refugees). Fleur is completely correct that human rights abuses are at the core of refugee movements. While there are always many people in a country who will stay and fight human rights abuses even when this results in their sacrifice, others will flee danger trying to get themselves and their families to places of safety; we are not all heroes. Yet, when people flee in more than very small numbers, state authorities have a tendency to begin the language of mass migration. The right to be a refugee becomes buried under the threat of mass migration to the detriment of international obligations. Insofar as mass migration is a matter for management, the right of a refugee is an individual right to international protection which states have bound themselves to offer.

scholarly journals [BOOK REVIEW] Refugees, Regionalism, and Responsibility

2019 ◽  
Vol 06 (03) ◽  
pp. 638-642
Author(s):  
Jenica Alva
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Law School ◽  
Simple Manner ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
Innovative Idea ◽  
Durable Solutions

Penelope Mathew is a Professor of International Law and a Dean in Griffith Law School, Australia. She is a profound researcher in refugee law topics. She is admired for her innovative idea to promote regionalism as a tool for governments to leverage better protection for refugees. Studying an underexplored topic, Mathew is able to synthesize the complexity of regionalism in a simple manner to be understood easily by readers. The book is divided into two parts. The first part consists of three sub-parts: (1) regionalism position in international politics and refugee law; (2) philosophical and ethical reasons of states’ responsibility in the case of refugees; and (3) steps and actions for states to share responsibility in handling refugees. The second part looks at the regional arrangements for the protection of refugees in some detail, whether they have resulted in better refugee protection and durable solutions.

Part I International Refugee Law— Reflections on the Scholarly Field, Ch.8 The Intersection of International Refugee Law and International Statelessness Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
van Waas Laura
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Forced Displacement ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
Durable Solutions ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
International Refugee Law ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Stateless Person

This chapter focuses on the intersection of international refugee law and international statelessness law. While refugee law, policy, doctrine, and research evolved, it was not until after the turn of the twenty-first century that international statelessness law started to draw much attention and to begin to emerge as a field of its own. As global interest in statelessness grows, the interaction between statelessness and forced displacement has also come back under the spotlight. Thus, the chapter provides an insight into the relationship between statelessness and forced displacement. It starts by unpacking how statelessness can manifest itself as a cause or consequence of displacement, as well as how statelessness can be a complicating factor for refugee protection and durable solutions. The chapter then offers a brief overview of key norms relating to the protection of stateless persons and the prevention and resolution of statelessness, setting out the contours of international statelessness law. It also looks at the implications of the statelessness–displacement nexus by exploring the conceptual and practical questions that arise when a refugee is also stateless, and when a stateless person is also a refugee.

Part V The Scope of Refugee Protection, Ch.41 Refugee Children

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pobjoy Jason M
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Family Reunification ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Refugee Children ◽  
Significant Protection ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Durable Solutions

This chapter focuses on refugee children. International law affords all refugee children special protection, under both the Refugee Convention and, of particular significance, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The CRC recognizes children as independent rights-bearers, entitled to a comprehensive set of civil, political, social, economic, and cultural rights that are designed to cater for their specific needs. The rights set out under the CRC apply to all children, wherever they find themselves, without discrimination. Evidently there is a significant protection gap. This chapter traces the development of international law relating to refugees and to children, before addressing six key issues: first, the notion of childhood and the difficulties in proving age; secondly, the application of the refugee definition to children; thirdly, the extent to which the CRC is capable of affording independent and more appropriate forms of protection status for children; fourthly, a refugee child's entitlement to appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance (article 22 of the CRC); fifthly, the availability of durable solutions; and finally, family reunification.

Counting the population in need of international protection globally

2019 ◽  
pp. 91-102
Author(s):  
Brad K. Blitz ◽  
Alessio D’Angelo ◽  
Eleonore Kofman
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Quality Of Data ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Related Services ◽  
International Protection ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Multilateral Cooperation ◽  
And Gender

Different international and regional agencies count the number of persons crossing borders and internally displaced within states worldwide. Boosted in particular by conflicts in the Middle East, the number of refugees has grown to 15.1 million in 2015 and people of concern to 63.5 million. States have also sought to reduce the number recognised as Convention refugees (as defined in 1951) and are seeking to reinterpret their obligations and introducing limitations on those to be protected. The quality of data used to advance UNHCR programmes varies from one category of protected person to another, thus raising important questions for the management and delivery of protection-related services. Moreover, data are not disaggregated by age and gender, and in spite of greater efforts at multilateral cooperation, these datasets do not cover the same populations as those produced by other agencies. This chapter reviews the coverage of people of concern in the UNHCR’s guidelines and identifies gaps in the datasets used by UN and multilateral agencies tasked with the protection of refugees, IDPs and other people of concern. It suggests that these datasets need to be broadened to include other categories of vulnerable individuals and groups and that further disaggregation is needed.

Palestinian Refugees in International Law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albanese Francesca P ◽  
Takkenberg Lex
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Protection ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
Durable Solutions ◽  
Second World

The Palestinian refugee question, resulting from the events surrounding the creation of the state of Israel seventy years ago, remains one of the largest and most protracted refugee crises of the post-Second World War era. Numbering over six million in the Middle East alone, Palestinian refugees’ status and treatment varies considerably according to the state or territory ‘hosting’ them, the UN agency assisting them, and political circumstances surrounding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict these refugees are naturally associated with. Despite being foundational to both the experience of the Palestinian refugees and the resolution of their plight, international law has not been a decisive factor in discussions concerning their fate. This compelling new edition offers a clear and comprehensive analysis of various areas of international law (including refugee law, human rights law, humanitarian law, the law relating to stateless persons, principles related to internally displaced persons, as well as notions of international criminal law), and probes the relevance of their interplay to the provision of international protection for Palestinian refugees and their quest for durable solutions.

scholarly journals Forced Displacement and the Crisis of Citizenship in Africa’s Great Lakes Region: Rethinking Refugee Protection and Durable Solutions

Refuge ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Hovil ◽  
Zachary A. Lomo
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Forced Displacement ◽  
Significant Contributor ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Durable Solutions ◽  
Refugee Policies

This article explores refugee protection and durable solutions in Africa’s Great Lakes region by examining conflict, displacement, and refugees in the light of the crisis of citizenship. Drawing on empirical data from nine studies across the region, we scrutinize the causes of conflict and displacement and refugee policies and practice in the region through the lens of citizenship. First, we argue that the continued plight of many refugees in the region without durable solutions results, at least in part, from an endemic and systemic inability of many people in the region to realize citizenship in a meaningful way. This inability, we argue, is a significant contributor to the continued forced displacement of millions of people, with many still refugees, even after living in the host states for over three decades. Second, we argue that solutions are failing because discussions about the root causes of refugee influxes and movements often fail to capture the intricately connected historical, political, social, economic, religious, and legal factors that engender displacement. We submit that full and equal enjoyment of the rights and benefits of citizenship by all, including access to citizenship for refugees, is one means of resolving displacement and providing durable solutions to refugees.

6. Refugees and asylum-seekers

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalid Koser
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
International Protection ◽  
The Status ◽  
Durable Solutions ◽  
Local Integration ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

Asylum-seekers are those who have applied for international protection. Asylum status is still governed by the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. ‘Refugees and asylum-seekers’ explains the changing geography of refugees and the causes and consequences of refugee movements. Refugees tend not to travel very far, putting strain on the poorest countries, and mostly settle in camps, which suffer from aid misappropriation. There are three durable solutions for refugees: voluntary repatriation, local integration, and third-country settlement. Each can be problematic and none is working well at the moment, as demonstrated by rising numbers of refugees, the increasing proportion of protracted refugee situations, and fewer returns.

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