Search

Even though inter-state forced displacement is heavily concentrated in the Third World and predominantly constituted of massive migration flows linked to objective and structural socio-economic factors, the protection provided by International Refugee Law remains based on a liberal Euro- and state-centric definition of refugees, culminating in a de facto exclusion of the great majority of the world's refugees. This article advocates the need to conceptually challenge the 1951 Convention refugee definition, proposing the Cartagena Declaration as a Third World human rights alternative to it. The delegitimization of the socio-economic refugee sustains and is sustained by the Western liberal and state-centric logic under which International Refugee Law functions. The recognition of socio-economic rights per se as a basis for refugee status under the Cartagena Declaration constitutes a rupture with that dysfunctional logic. Consequently, the Cartagena 'Spirit' provides, in theory, a comprehensive and up-to-date human rights refugee protection regime capable of encompassing all types of refugees. To materialise the discussion, the article critically analyses the Brazilian application of the Cartagena refugee definition to Venezuelan socio-economic refugees. It concludes that the Brazilian approach does not fully materialise the Cartagena 'Spirit' radical potential, putting into question the 'Spirit' practical feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the experiences of an Irish diplomat involved in high-level diplomatic negotiations, focusing on the importance of considering the collective good and pursuing agreements that benefit humanity as a whole. The author specifically highlights their leadership roles in global negotiation processes at the United Nations, including the review of the Millennium Development Goals and the development of the Sustainable Development Goals. The challenges and complexities of these negotiations are described, emphasizing the need for consensus and cooperation among member states. The author also shares their experiences in brokering major agreements at the UN, highlighting the involvement of civil society organizations, the complexity of the issues, and the need to balance the interests of different countries. The importance of clear vision, inclusive approaches, and effective communication in achieving collective agreements is emphasized. The Sustainable Development Goals and the New York Declaration on Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants are praised for their contributions to global public goods and their resilience. The author also draws on their experiences in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement in Ireland to highlight lessons learned about leadership for the collective good. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores Turkey's century-long asylum policies by highlighting two enduring policy considerations. The first is Turkey's process of convergence with the norms and principles of the global refugee regime. The second is the persistent practice of granting refugees protection of a temporary nature. These two policy considerations are discussed by employing the conceptual frameworks of 'policy diffusion' and the 'nationalizing migration state.' The study concludes that Turkey's asylum policies have been shaped by the tension between these two policy considerations over the past century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the construction of identity and the 'particular social group' (PSG) under the 1951 Refugee Convention. In particular, it analyses the ways in which the identity of a non-binary asylum claimant is discussed in the Mx M case in the UK, and what the implications of this might be for the project of queering the PSG. The article identifies four central challenges for queering and navigating the PSG, informed by Judith Butler's notion of a 'double movement'. These are the demand for recognition; the threat of erasure and/or misrepresentation; the contestation of universal, objective and/or essentialist categories; and the inseparability of violence from resistance. The article argues that strategic flexibility offers the greatest potential for individual claimants and for the wider project of queering the PSG, rather than trying to resolve the challenges by consistently adopting any single approach to PSG construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines Rohingya living in Malaysia. Myanmar's discriminatory citizenship laws have stripped nearly all Rohingya of their citizenship, making them the largest stateless ethnic group in the world. Malaysia is one of the most popular destinations for the displaced Rohingya from Myanmar. As Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the Rohingya are not entitled to any legal protection under the existing law in their host country. This study aims to identify the challenges faced by displaced Rohingya regarding their right to work, and the response from the Malaysian government. The methodology used for this research is a multi-site case study with the case study sites being Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Terengganu, and Pahang. After intensive fieldwork and meetings with different stakeholders, this research revealed that Malaysian people are sympathetic to the Rohingya and wish to assist them within their limited capacities. Overall, this study argues that there is no consistent government policy and a lack of coordination between the Malaysian government and international agencies working to improve the welfare of the Rohingya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cryopreservation presents the possibility of circumventing irreversible death through the body's extreme cooling. Once cooled, this 'cryon' is then stored at sub-zero temperatures until medical knowledge enables curative revival. However, the possibility of the post-cryopreserved supporting themselves, both economically and socially, is dubious; they will likely need state assistance. What a future society owes the post-cryopreserved, and why, remains unclear. One potential solution is to consider revivals as comparable to refugees, with the latter fleeing spatially and the former fleeing temporally. But, the appropriateness of the 'cryonic refugee' remains unconsidered. This paper uses the 1951 Refugee Convention to clarify refugeehood's four necessary characteristics before exploring whether these qualities apply to the temporally displaced. It concludes that while similarities exist, the comparison fails due to the limitations placed on the form of persecution that one flees and why repatriation is impossible. Thus, any assistive obligation must come from an alternative source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the legal reconfigurations of refuge and its consequences for people displaced by war and state violence. Within Western countries signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, refugee protection has traditionally served as a solution to conflict-induced displacement by offering a path to permanent residence and citizenship. Yet, in the wake of recent global "refugee crises," several countries have introduced new refugee protection statuses that only allow refugees to stay temporarily. In this article, I focus on one such intervention in Denmark introduced in the fall of 2014, which targets Syrian refugees. Through a feminist geo-legal analysis of this statute and surrounding policy documents, I illustrate how the Danish state has mobilized subtle legal interventions to transform the meaning and character of refugee protection. By differentially classifying groups of refugees according to new calculations of threat and risk, I show how these maneuverings work to deny refugees basic rights and make them subject to intimidation, surveillance, and deportation. I argue that this new statute functions as a legal mechanism of sociospatial b/ordering that produces a series of displacements and limits refugees' access to effective protection under the 1951 Convention. In doing so, I advance critical discussions on temporary protection status, displacement, and refuge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work examines the origins of the principle of non-refoulement and how it has evolved during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Non-refoulement, or the right not to be repelled or returned, was agreed upon by States as a narrow protection against the return to certain death for all refugees in 1951, as part of the Refugee Convention. Although 1951 marked the inception of non-refoulement as a legal principle, there is evidence to show that it existed in some form previously, through examining religious texts and early writings on international law. However, its adoption by human rights law has meant that the principle has been expanded and has departed significantly from the intention of the original drafters. This is problematic for both refugee law and human rights law: it encourages narrower and narrower interpretations of the right to non-refoulement by States, as shown below, because of the intense concerns States have, and always have had, around mass migration. This work argues for an understanding of the principle of non-refoulement as intended in the 1951 Refugee Convention, to prevent its conflation with the right to asylum and thereby its erosion through ever more limited interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption in 2018 of two Global Compacts, one on Refugees and the other on Migration, has reinvigorated longstanding debates about the distinction between these two groups. On the one hand, differentiating between the two is crucial to ensuring that people forced to leave their homes are not removed to any place where they face a real risk of persecution or other serious harm. On the other hand, drawing a hard line between them does not reflect the current state of international law, nor the complex reasons that people move. This essay argues that, in the context of cross-border mobility, the most important distinction is not between refugees and migrants per se, but rather between those who require "international protection" and those who do not. Using the term "refugee" as shorthand for the former is no longer accurate or desirable, and risks arbitrarily privileging the rights of some forced migrants over others. A close reading of the Global Compacts reveals that both, in fact, recognize the importance of international protection and that States' international protection obligations extend beyond any specific definition of a "refugee". These obligations derive from the broader body of international refugee and human rights law that underpins, and should guide, the interpretation and application of the Compacts themselves. They include the core obligation not to remove (refouler) individuals to any place where they would face a real risk of persecution or other serious harm. Such principles must remain at the forefront of efforts to implement both Global Compacts, unobscured by nomenclature or neat categorizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including narratives used in international relations of Australia, foreign policy making by examining responses to terrorism in Australia and exemptions from United Nations (UN) Refugee Convention.

Through legal interpretation of immigration categories, such as the refugee definition, signatories to the UN Refugee Convention restrict access to political asylum. This paper examines how scalar logics are used in legal interpretation to filter out particular people from national space and control the number legally entitled to enter and remain in the U.S. Scalar logics shape access by requiring asylum seekers to prove they have been 'singled out' for persecution and by steering the meaning of the 'particular social group' provision of the refugee definition. The restrictive effects of these scalar logics are analyzed in relation to case law involving Central American asylum seekers fleeing gang‐related violence. These cases are often rejected on the basis that the asylum seekers possess identities and experiences exceeding the limited protection offered by asylum. Through analysis of these scalar logics, the paper highlights how interpretations of the refugee definition are an ongoing site of struggle over the scope of asylum protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Escalating tensions in the Peninsula may force voluminous North Koreans to leave the country, although relevant information is limited. China has refused to grant North Korean escapees the refugee status, because the main reason of their departure, economic hardship, is not prescribed in conventional refugee definition. The Bangkok Principles provide principal guidance to Asia's refugee issues, whereto its non-legally binding framework helps facilitate the fledgling regional efforts and still-developing states' wills. Yet, China's insistence in distinguishing economic hardship from political causes reifies its overt cautions to the rapidly evolving refugee causes, and an outright rejection to the indiscriminate humanitarian nature of refugee protection. Another reason is China's 'Asian Values' approach to human right, seeing various aspects of human right as separable. To grant refugees only partial rights would appear theoretically unsound, and blatantly contradicting its integral human-right essence. Realistically, China has only limited refugee reception experiences. Its relevant domestic mechanism is under-developed, whereby positive public opinions cannot be effectively remoulded. China also worries about the unwanted international attentions and entailed geopolitical implications, which imply denunciation of Pyongyang's governance performance by formally identifying these escapees, refugees. Current dramatic changes in inter-Korean relations urge China to take swift, expedient, and substantive actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discuses court cases on the immigration and asylum Law in the U.S. Topics include aspects of the international protection authority, including termination of refugee status under the Refugee Convention; causes of humanitarian crisis by the actions of conflicted state actors and political parties; and failure of immigration rules leading to reverse the directive of qualification as regards to humanitarian/subsidiary protection.

In 2015, the United Kingdom recognised 85% of asylum seekers from Syria as refugees, whereas Russia granted this form of protection to only 0.2% of those fleeing Syria. This research is an attempt to look into this dilemma: why did two countries, both signatories of the 1951 Geneva Convention, treat people in similar situations in such drastically different ways? The study of these two meaningfully contrasting cases argues that such factors as a split administrative asylum procedure, the covert nature of asylum policy, the one-sided character of the country of origin information, double-differential risk requirements, and the lack of availability of legal aid can produce a decisive impact on the recognition rate. If implemented, these factors allow the foreign policy of the country to dominate international or national legal obligations in status adjudications. As a result, asylum procedures become dependent on changes in diplomatic relations, opening the door to some groups of ‘amicable’ asylum seekers or shutting it on ‘undesirable’ ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on transforming refugee discursive practices in the world. Topics discussed include the 1951 Refugee Convention that focused on the problem that countries granting asylum might bear, and intractable refugee situations in crowded camps. Also being discussed is the global refugee crisis relevant to principles of humanitarianiasm, human security, and human rights.

Article 1F(a) of the Refugee Convention denies protection to those who commit certain international crimes. In this article we argue that while Article 1F(a) does not contain an explicit ‘exception’ for child soldiers, a lack of international consensus regarding their individual responsibility means they should not be denied refugee protection on the basis of their involvement in international crimes. Such a reading of Article 1F(a) both respects a purposive reading of the Refugee Convention and ensures that some of the world's most vulnerable individuals are not denied the protection they desperately need. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The extent to which the Pacific Solution and other refugee policy developments under the Howard government were contested within Canberra circles will not be known until cabinet files are opened many years hence. However, if recent research into the White Australia policy is anything to go by, the files may shed unappreciated nuance on the context and reasoning behind such developments. We cannot pre-empt this research, but we can explore documents to which we do have access to deepen insight into Australia's refugee policy foundations, and to prepare the ground for more informed assessments of recent developments. Using archived policy files, this article examines the internal debates that surrounded Australia's accession to the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. The picture that emerges challenges simplistic assessments as to the motives of policy makers of the time. It also shows how different government departments—in this case Immigration and External (now Foreign) Affairs—can support policy changes for different reasons, at different speeds, and not always in the order that might be expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]