Reframing relationships: Revisiting the procedural standards for refugee status determination in light of recent human rights treaty body jurisprudence

Abstract

This article reassesses the question of whether international human rights law fixes procedural parameters for the determination of refugee status. Based on a detailed jurisprudential analysis, the study shows that Human Rights Treaty bodies of both universal and regional aspiration contribute positively to clarifying the minimum procedural standards applicable to this aspect of refugee protection. Drawing on recent groundbreaking decisions, the study finds general agreement among these transnational human rights bodies that human rights guarantees do regulate the process of refugee status determination. Nonetheless, it equally illustrates that each treaty body frames the applicability of human rights standards to refugee status determination in a different way. The article concludes that the tension between these two dynamics of the treaty body jurisprudence - convergence in result but divergence in approach - raises certain questions about our wider understanding of the relationship(s) between refugee law and human rights law.