Non-refoulement in international refugee law, human rights law and asylum laws

Abstract

Recent armed conflicts in Syria, Libya, Sudan and Afghanistan, and similarly the increasing occurrence of natural disasters, suchas the earthquake in Haiti, result in massive displacement of people within the affected country or across international borders. At the end of 2014 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (‘UNHCR’) estimated the number of global refugees under its mandate to be 11.7 million, with a general displacement of 51.2million individuals worldwide.1 Refugee protection matters in their every manifestation lay at the centre of both fundamental but often opposing principles of international law, on oneside the principles of State sovereignty and territorial supremacy and on the other side thehumanitarian ideas of the international community framed in States’ obligations under international treaties.2 Additionally, the legal framework for the protection of refugees circles around the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees andits 1967 Protocol, in its broader application, however, refugee protection is composed of intersecting and mutually reinforcingrights and duties stemming from different fields ofinternational law, to a great extentinternational human rights law, asylum laws and international humanitarian law. To clarify the various scopes and contents and identify beneficiaries of single provisions is essential to provide for a comprehensive protection of Convention and non-Convention refugees. This articlewilladdress the specifics of one of the major principles of refugee protection, the principle of non-refoulement.