Human Rights and Refugee Protection (original) (raw)
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Human Rights, Refugee Protection and Humanitarian Action
Refugee Survey Quarterly, 1999
The 1990s have witnessed an explosion of forced migration and of massive violations of humanitarian law. At the origin of these developments, or closely connected with them, invariably there have been violations of some of the most fundamental human rights. As a reaction to this epidemy of political and humanitarian crises, the last ten years have also seen a strong reaffirmation of the most fundamental rights of human persons, and the obligation of states and non-state groups to respect them. The history of the 1990s will also have been the record of the efforts of the international community, and in particular of the humanitarian organisations broadly defined, to protect and assist the victims of the violations of these rights and to help realise the respect for these obligations and principles. The objective of the 1999 conference was to highlight the convergence of three major dimensions of international obligations and concern: the protection of the victims of forced displacement, the protection of the victims of war and violence and the upholding of fundamental human rights. International humanitarian law and action, the protection of refugees and of the victims of all forms of forced migration, and international human rights obligations are the three main pillars of the international system of defending the human person. There are the rights of individuals and groups and the obligations to respect them: these rights include those that are most likely to be threatened by perpetrators, oppressive or violent governments or groups; and there are those that imply the right to protection and assistance from the rest of the international community as a whole or from individual states. The 1999 Webster conference dealt with a highly topical issue that is of great interest to a wide range of people: (1) in the first place, and most directly, the victims or the potential victims living in the many countries
Human Rights Violation of Refugee.docx
When one looted country after another begins to sink, when there is nothing left there, when children begin dying from hunger and when men commence fighting each other over tiny boulders and dirty pieces of turf, pathetic boats or dinghies begin crossing the waterways, bringing half starved, half mad refugees to the European sea-front decorated with marble. What a horrifying sight! As if a women, her hair waving in disarray, her lips broken, comes begging a man who raped her after killing her husband-begging for shelter and at least some work and piece of bread. Too egocentric, too cruel, we lost the ability to judge, to feel. All moral standards collapsed. There are no higher principles any more, only self-interest.1 And because of this self interest the refugee crisis expands all over the world and this crisis is just like a humanitarian disaster. The fundamental human rights or in other words the basic needs of human being that refer to food, cloths, residents, health services, and education is uncontroversial. But these rights are obscure in the life of refugees. Here we focus on Refugee and the violation of human rights. We also discuss the impact of the refugee crisis in critical areas of intervention which help us to understand the overall current refugee problem of the world.
Humanity and the Refugee: Another Stab at Universal Human Rights
This paper takes up the questions of (1) how the refugee crisis exhibits the fault lines in what might otherwise seem to be a robust human rights regime and (2) what kinds of ways of seeing and thinking might better attune us to solving these problems. There is surprising agreement internationally on the content of human rights, although there is a huge gulf between international agreements on human rights and the protection of those most vital. The subtitle of the paper, " another stab at universal rights, " has a double entendre: in the midst of a crisis that is stabbing international agreements on human rights to its core, I will take a stab at using the crisis situation to point a way forward toward a cosmopolitan social imaginary that uses human imagination, not just as an ability to represent in one's mind what one has seen elsewhere, but also as an ability to imagine something radically new. This social imaginary points to the necessity of according everyone, refugees included, as having a right to politics and thus a hand in shaping their own world, including their new, host communities.
Refugees, UNHCR and Human Rights:Current Dilemmas of Conflicting Mandates
Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees, 1998
There continues to be an increase in concern for human rights in different areas, and refugies are no exception. Specifically, UNHCR has become more concerned with human rights issues. This article reviews the standard phrases used to indicate the the relationship between human rights and refugees before examining the specificity refugees in terms of human rights. The point of view taken is that the specïficity of the refugee situation is different from normal human rights concems, and the conclusion is that including refugees, within a human rights framework actually weaken refugee protection. That is we propose that although human rights in and of themselves cannot be argued against, the inclusion of refugies within a human rights régime may actually weaken the kinds of protection necessary for refugees and their particular situation. UNHCR would do well to focus on its limited mandate rather than including refugees within the human rights régime.
The State of the World's Refugees: Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action
Journal of Government Information, 2004
The plight of refugees is an ageless one. In 1951, the United Nations completed the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a document designed to link together the 1945 Charter of the United Nations and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights to ''assure refugees the widest possible exercise of these fundamental rights and freedoms.'' 1 The Convention created a definition of a ''refugee'' based on previous formalizations from the 1920s to 1930s: a refugee is any person who ''owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.'' This statement is presented in information Box 1.3, entitled ''The 1951 UN Refugee Convention,'' as is a section of Article 33 from the ''Prohibition of expulsion or return ('refoulement')'' (p. 23). The initial time constraint, within the Convention, that limited refugee status to events before 1951 was removed in 1967 (p. 53). This adjustment and a range of other materials are described in information aids that are customary presentation tools in publications of the United Nations. 2 The sorrowful history of refugees in the 50 years since the Convention fills these pages. In an attempt to balance the scales, there are discussions on the formation of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 3 and on repatriation and asylum, but these are overwhelmed by the flood of contents on ''decolonization'', ''rupture'', ''flight'', ''proxy wars'', ''displacement'', and ''genocide.'' As High Commissioner Sadako Ogata states in her Foreword,
Reaffirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that stresses that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, Recalling the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the protocols thereto, in particular the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish 1 *Non-member States of the Human Rights Council. Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, Guided by the principles as set forth in the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees and the New York Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, especially the principle of non-refoulement, Recognizing that States are responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights of all people, including refugees and asylum seekers in their territory who are subjected to their jurisdiction, Reaffirming the duty of States to effectively promote and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all refugees and asylum seeking people, in conformity with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the international instruments to which they are party, Declaring the importance of upholding human rights standards and preserving the fundamental freedoms of refugees and asylum seekers during the adoption of policies and initiatives on the issue of refugees and asylum seekers, Recalling the recommended guidelines and principles on human rights at international borders as set forth by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Deeply disturbed by the alarmingly high number of refugees and asylum seekers throughout the world, due to generalized violence, armed conflict, violations of international law and particularly international humanitarian law and human rights law, who lack adequate assistance and protection, Taking into consideration the escalating protracted nature of modern conflicts all over the world, Deeply concerned by the erosion of the institution of asylum due to the mixed movement of populations, Noting with regret the increasingly dangerous shrinking of humanitarian space that affects the working conditions of humanitarian workers, Deeply concerned by the enormous burden on countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea due to the nature of this border, which results to increasing numbers of cases of refoulement of vulnerable refugees and asylum seeking people, Expressing its deep appreciation for the neighboring countries of conflictaffected states that harbor the increasing population of refugees, Keeping in mind the efforts made by countries with available resources to settle refugees in a long term and sustainable way in accordance with the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Recognizing the importance of the European Resettlement Network to resettle asylum seekers through its extensive regional, national and international network consisting of local organizations, international organizations and non-governmental organizations, Reaffirming the importance of the initiatives taken by the Migration Policy Centre and the Euro-Mediterranean Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM),