非法入境难民的处理原则

本文共分两个部分,第一部分阐明和论证了普遍性的难民定义。首先论证了按1951年《关于难民地位的公约》和1967年《关于难民地位的议定书》的规定,难民包括历史文件规定的难民和新界定的难民;同时论证了新定义下难民界定的条件。第二部分重点论证了国家对非法入境难民保护的两项原则:一是边界不拒绝,即不应拒绝越过边界的难民停留,且在紧急情况下不拒绝难民入境;二是宽容和便利,包括不施以刑罚和不必要的限制和提供获得第三国接受的便利。     

浅论避难权

避难权,作为欧盟共同避难体系的核心权利,在当今难民潮之下毫无疑问将发挥重要作用。该权利并非囿于简单的宣示,其作为难民权利可诉机制的有机组成部分,内涵丰富。本文基于"难民"和"第三国国民"的概念前提,明确避难权为难民寻求和享有庇护的权利,并依据欧盟近年颁布的指令,从难民地位的确定、难民待遇的维持和申请程序的保障等三方面对其进行论述,明确指出欧盟在"附属地位保护"、"第一庇护国"、"安全第三国"等方面做出的制度创新和实践之中存在的问题。     

论朝鲜“脱北者”的国际法地位及我国的对策

近年来,朝鲜"脱北者"问题逐渐成为地区乃至国际热点问题,中国在该问题上以遣返为主的政策也日益面临来自其他国家的压力。从1951年《关于难民地位的公约》的规定和相关国际实践来看,"脱北者"是否具有难民地位不能一概而论,而是要具体问题具体分析;我国的现有政策总体上无可非议,同时可以考虑按照国际条约,给予那些确因政治原因出逃的"脱北者"们国际法上的难民地位。此外,我国还有必要建立健全处理难民及相关问题的机制。     

国际难民制度“变”与“不变”的问题思考——兼论国际难民事务的中国立场

国家切实遵守并有效执行1951年《关于难民地位的公约》、维护国际难民制度的稳定已经在国际社会形成共识。主权原则是国际难民制度的建构基础,同时,人权的普遍性与包容性为加强难民权利的保护提供了更广泛的法律基础。通过方法与路径的调适对突破国际难民制度的固有局限具有深远的意义。当前,复杂严峻的难民现实情势向国际难民制度提出挑战。在法律层面,国际难民法、国际人权法、国际人道法提供硬性法律框架,促进对国家的监督与问责,提升向难民的赋权与保障并拓展国际机构的行动空间。在实践层面,应推动"软法"意义上的国际合作,超越国家分野、整合多方资源,尽可能地动员广泛的利益攸关方参与分担难民责任。     

难民保护面临的国际法问题及对策

对难民提供国际保护既是人道主义的要求,也是维护国际和平与安全使然,然而拒不接受难民的趋势越来越严重。应对这一问题的法律措施,一是修改既有难民定义,扩大国际难民法的保护范围,使得各国对那些不符合既有难民定义却处于与难民同样境地的人的援助,从纯粹基于人道主义考虑的自觉自愿行为转化为法律义务。二是强调国际人权法在难民国际保护中的应有作用。将人权原理应用到难民保护领域,通过敦促国家履行国际人权保护义务来实现对难民的保护,可以克服国际难民法的固有缺陷,并强化难民国际保护的法律基础。     

南非难民保护制度研究——对难民地位、权利和义务的分析

南非难民保护制度建立在南非《宪法》的基本价值基础之上,国家现行难民立法的概念明显向移民法转移。《难民法案》重构先前压制性的难民制度,代之以人权文化为基础的难民法,其颁布标志着国际法和国内法的有意识的融合,是与其宪政体制相符的。本文着眼于当前各种难民法规关于难民权利和自由的细节规定,如《联合国难民地位公约》和非洲统一组织的难民定义,重点讨论难民地位的定性、难民地位的确定和难民的权利与义务问题,并强调对难民法或者权利的任何解释都必须推进开放和民主社会下有关人格尊严、平等和自由的价值观。     

对云南红河州越南难民处置安排的法律意见

对难民的合法权益保护早在上个世纪20年代就已经开始,但直到第二次世界大战之后,国际社会才有了对难民概念的准确规定和专门解决难民问题的组织,难民问题也逐渐受到国际社会和世界各国的关注和重视。在我国云南红河州的越南难民问题已由来已久,在该地区产生了一些社会问题,严重影响了该地区的社会发展。因此,尽早解决该地区的难民问题成为维护该地区社会稳定的重大问题。     

国际法解决叙利亚难民问题初探

叙利亚难民问题的原因复杂,国际影响大,应结合国际法对国际难民的现行保护机制,分析叙利亚难民的形成原因,国际社会应该对叙利亚难民权利的保护并依法解决叙利亚难民问题。     

难民定义探讨

难民问题在历史上由来已久,在法律上有关难民的世界性定义产生比较晚,并由于难民的不同定义而一直伴随着争论,而争论的背后实际上就是什么人应当受到国际难民体制的关注。本文指出国际社会对难民关注中心的转移表明难民这一概念会随着时代的发展而具有不同的涵义。     

论中国难民地位的甄别及管理制度构建

如今我国境内外国人难民地位的甄别及管理制度缺位,导致难民地位的甄别依据缺失、难民地位申请者法律地位模糊以及难民身份证明文件法律效力不明确等问题存在,我国面临着一系列难民管理的现实难题,使我国在国际难民事务管理中处于被动地位。因此有必要在借鉴国际难民地位的甄别及管理制度建设经验的基础上,从行政管理的角度出发进行研究,为构建我国境内外国人难民地位的甄别及管理制度,提供相应对策,借此改善我国难民管理无法可依的现状,进一步规范我国境内外国人难民地位的管理。     

Who are Refugees?

Hundreds of millions of people around the world are unable to meet their needs on their own, and do not receive adequate protection or support from their home states. These people, if they are to be provided for, need assistance from the international community. If we are to meet our duties to these people, we must have ways of knowing who should be eligible for different forms of relief. One prominent proposal from scholars and activists has been to classify all who are unable to meet their basic needs on their own as ‘refugees’, and to extend to them the sorts of protections established under the United Nations Refugee Convention. Such an approach would expand the traditional refugee definition significantly. Unlike most academic commentators discussing this issue, I reject calls for an expanded refugee definition, and instead defend the core elements of the definition set out in the 1967 Protocol to the United Nations Refugee Convention. Using the tools of moral and political philosophy, I explain in this article how the group picked out by this definition has particular characteristics that make refugee protection distinctly appropriate for it. While many people in need of assistance can be helped ‘in place’, in their home countries, or by providing a form of temporary protected status to them, this is not so, I show, of convention refugees. The group picked out by the UN refugee definition is a normatively distinct group to whom we owe particular duties, duties we can only meet by granting them refuge in a safe country. Additionally, there are further practical reasons why a broader refugee definition may lead to problems. Finally, I argue that rejecting the call for a broader definition of refugees will better help us meet our duties to those in need than would an expanded definition.     

Assessing the Credibility of Refugee Applicants: A Judicial Perspective

The principal responsibility of refugee decision makers is todetermine those to whom refugee protection is owed. The mannerin which these decisions are to be made in Australia is thesubject of ongoing debate. However, that debate is not the subjectof this paper. The focus of this paper is on the credibilityassessment of refugee applicants and its principal purpose isinstructive. It is my hope that it will enhance the credibilityof credibility assessment within existing processes. Its secondarypurpose is to provide a basis from which policy makers may considerlegislative and other procedural change. It has been suggested that the ‘devil is in the detail’in refugee decision making. Working in a common law country,Australian refugee decision makers are afforded the (often binding)benefit of extensive judicial review of the refugee determinationprocess.¹ Thus, for Australian decision makers, the ‘devilin the detail’ is often to be found in a plethora of bindinglegal precedent. Accordingly, while the first part of this paperdiscusses selected matters which have facilitated the assessmentof the credibility of refugee applicants in Australia, as oneof the most authoritative domestic sources available, the secondpart of this paper principally focuses on the expressed viewsof Australian courts after examining credibility findings indecisions of the Refugee Review Tribunal.²     

Human trafficking: the case of Burmese refugees in Thailand

With an estimated 30 protracted refugee situations around the globe, the number of refugees finding themselves in prolonged displacement is alarming. While demarcated refugee camps are a visible component of this phenomenon, the link between protracted displacement and increased risks of human trafficking is much less evident. Within refugee camps, the lack of law and order or police protection along with the presence of large numbers of helpless people create a pool of readily available supply for those who want to exploit them. This account will discuss the conditions of displacement that contribute to human trafficking risks, particularly as they relate to the protracted refugee situation of Burmese in Thailand. The case study will be followed by a number of policy and practice recommendations for the reduction of these risks.     

The Relevance of the Work of the International Criminal Court to Refugee Status Determinations

This article considers the work of the International CriminalCourt (ICC) and its overlaps with refugee law and practice.It focuses on ICC complementarity determinations. These involvethe organs of the ICC considering whether a state is willingand able to prosecute individuals accused of international crimes.The article draws attention to the fact that such determinationsprovide information on the extent to which state legal systemsare functional and non-discriminatory, and thus able to ensurethat those who violate human rights are brought to justice.Such information, it is suggested, can and should be drawn uponin deciding whether there is a real chance that an applicantfor refugee status will be able to receive the protection oftheir state through its justice system. The paper draws on thisoverlap between the work of the ICC and refugee law and practiceto support its concluding recommendation that refugee practitionersshould see, and take advantage of, the overlap between the workof the ICC and refugee status inquiries. It is suggested thatthis will help to ensure that persons deserving internationalprotection get it. It will at the same time bring us anotherstep closer to the development of a fully integrated systemfor the protection and promotion of human rights.     

Forced Marriage as a Harm in Domestic and International Law

This article reports on our analysis of 120 refugee cases from Australia, Canada, and Britain where an actual or threatened forced marriage was part of the claim for protection. We found that forced marriage was rarely considered by refugee decision makers to be a harm in and of itself. This finding contributes to understanding how gender and sexuality are analysed within refugee law, because the harm of forced marriage is experienced differently by lesbians, gay men and heterosexual women. We contrast our findings in the refugee case law with domestic initiatives in Europe aimed at protecting nationals from forced marriages both within Europe and elsewhere. We pay particular attention to British initiatives because they are in many ways the most far-reaching and innovative, and thus the contrast with the response of British refugee law is all the more stark.     

The Beleaguered Gatekeeper: Protection Challenges Posed by UNHCR Refugee Status Determination

The number of individual RSD applications received by UNHCRoffices worldwide nearly doubled from 1997 to 2001, while UNHCR'sRSD operations have been criticized for failing to implementbasic standards of procedural fairness. Yet, although thereis some literature critiquing how UNHCR determines refugee status,there is little literature examining whether UNHCR should doso, and if it should, when, where, and under what conditions. UNHCR performance of RSD poses protection challenges becauseit is founded on a basic contradiction. On the one hand, governmentaction is essential for effective refugee protection. On theother hand, UNHCR RSD is premised on at least partial governmentfailure. Neither direct concern for protection from non-refoulement norstrict legal obligations completely explain UNHCR's currentRSD activities. UNHCR's RSD activities seem best explained bywhat Goodwin-Gill has called ‘negative responsibility’,and hence can represent a risky shift of responsibility fromgovernments to the UN. At the same time, in some circumstancesUNHCR RSD substantially advances refugee rights. In order to match its actual mandate and resources, UNHCR shouldperform RSD when it can enhance the protection provided to refugeesby governments, but the activity should be more limited andconditional than it is today.     

Creating Legal Space for Refugees in India: the Milestones Crossed and the Roadmap for the Future

The whole of South Asia is devoid of any standards and normson any dimension of refugee reception, determination and protection.The fact that a quarter of the world's refugees find themselvesin a non-standardized, if not hostile, refugee regime is a situationwhich does not augur well for either the mandate of UNHCR orfor any civilized society. The South Asian nations have theirown apprehensions, real or imaginary, about the utility of CSR1951 to their situations. Because of historical mishaps, politicalignorance, unstable democracies and exaggerated concern overnational security, there is hardly any motivation for, or anyenvironment in which there is a possibility for, the enactmentof national legislation. Non-governmental agencies, in their own way, have been tryingto influence the States to accede to the Convention and, also,to promulgate national laws. The most noticeable contributionis the draft national law for India, ‘Refugees and AsylumSeekers Act’, discussed and approved by the Fourth InformalConsultations on Refugees and Migratory Movement Sessions intheir Dacca Session. The draft legislation has been under considerationby the Indian government for some time but the issue, nonetheless,remains both important and urgent. There is an almost completeabsence of discussion about it in any forum, even the media.This paper is an attempt to examine the provisions of the draftlaw, insofar as it conforms to the international standards,and to show where it is found wanting. The paper also evaluatesthe competence of the draft law to answer security considerationsafter 9/11. The paper suggests suitable amendments that maymake the enactment of national law a reality, so that the voidin the international regime of refugee protection can be filledeffectively and fast.     

Complicity in International Criminal Law and Canadian Refugee Law: A Comparison

International criminal law is normally seen as the purview ofcriminal prosecutions, either internationally or domestically.However, international criminal law is also increasingly beingapplied in refugee law. This is because the 1951 Refugee Conventioncontains an exclusion clause prohibiting asylum seekers fromobtaining refugee status if they have committed a crime againstpeace, a war crime or a crime against humanity. Thus, refugeelaw refers back to international criminal law; however, whileinternational criminal tribunals deal with persons who bearthe greatest responsibility, in actual practice persons whohave been excluded from refugee protection have been mostlyfrom the lower echelons of organizations involved in atrocities.This article, based on Canadian case law, examines the conceptsof complicity, aiding and abetting and joint criminal enterprisefrom both an international criminal law point of view and froma Canadian refugee law angle, in order to determine whetherthese notions have similar contents in the two jurisdictions.