Refugees: Overview

The United Nations’ 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees attempted to define and, ultimately, protect refugees after World War II. However, government efforts to regulate the entry and reception of refugees and asylum seekers have throughout history been challenged by a variety of political, religious, and cultural pressures. The essays in this chapter reveal, through sometimes personal accounts of individual experiences, the plight of refugees in a number of countries around the globe in obtaining human rights protection and social justice

‘Who Determines Refugee Policy? Promoting The Right of Asylum in South Africa’

South Africa has recently been spared the long-term, large-scale refugee movements seen by other countries on the continent, although its own external and internal history has seen it contribute to displacement in other countries, create refugees out of its own people, and face internal displacement as a result largely of political violence. In recent years, and in common with many other States, South Africa has had to deal with the question of how to deal, procedurally and substantively, with refugees and asylum seekers within its territory. The 1999 Refugees Act is part of the answer to that question, and this article examines the debate which preceded its enactment, and at the role played by a number of local and foreign specialists, service providers and international and local organisations. The substantial number of civil society interventions and the willingness of governments to consider them are a relatively new but welcome phenomenon in South Africa; it remains to be seen how the evolving discourse will help to settle various outstanding issues, as well as the problems of practical implementation likely to emerge

Advocating for accountability: Civic-state interactions to protect refugees in South Africa

This book discusses the dynamics of civic-state interactions aimed at the state’s obligations to promote, protect and fulfil human rights. Through the lens of refugee rights advocacy in South Africa in the early years of its post-1994 period of democracy, this book examines and explains the circumstances under which civic-state interactions can lead to structural change, and what these interactions can teach us about the potential of civic society to realise rights in general

SEEKING JUSTICE, GUARANTEEING PROTECTION AND ENSURING DUE PROCESS: ADDRESSING THE TENSIONS BETWEEN EXCLUSION FROM REFUGEE PROTECTION AND THE PRINCIPLE OF UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION

Efforts to secure protection for refugees in the Netherlands are being undermined by over-enthusiastic use of the exclusion principle in refugee status determination procedures. Inappropriate use of the exclusion principle is tied to accelerated (albeit ineffective) efforts to secure justice for human rights violators. As this article argues, the tensions that arise are unacceptable, but can be appropriately addressed through a (re)commitment to both principles and pragmatism. A principled commitment would ensure that due process is thoroughly respected in asylum determination procedures. This must be accompanied by a pragmatic, rights-based application of the aut dedere aut judicare principle (extradite or prosecute), reinforced by strengthened coordination between the government agencies responsible for asylum and prosecution

Beyond Exclusion: Assessing Palestinian refugees’ struggle for protection and recognition and their potential contribution to a peace settlement

At a time of constant change in the diplomatic and political debate, Imagining a Shared Future: Perspectives on Law, Conflict and Economic Development in the Middle East contributes to the discussion and development of solutions to the stagnating economic situation in Palestine. All too often economic aspects of the development of this region, and their role in building a sustainable future, are ignored or considered in sectoral or thematic isolation. Imagining a Shared Future: Perspectives on Law, Conflict and Economic Development in the Middle East brings together a variety of papers from multiple disciplines, written by experts from the region and beyond, with a view to breaking some of this isolated thinking. From the longstanding question of the return of refugees, to the treatment of the Bedouin population of Israel, to the concept of spacio-cide and the destruction of land and land rights, this compilation offers the reader the opportunity to reconsider issues with new insights and face some of the challenges that must be met in the move for reform and development. Imagining a Shared Future: Perspectives on Law, Conflict and Economic Development in the Middle East not only provides original analyses and ideas about Israeli, Palestinian and international legislation and actors, investment, funding, and particular economic sectors, but also considers how more subtle issues such as limited legal frameworks or misuse of legislation and tax regimes, all create obstacles to economic development and a sustainable future. Imagining a Shared Future: Perspectives on Law, Conflict and Economic Development in the Middle East should be read by policy makers, scholars, economists, activists and businessmen, particularly those interested in economic development in the Middle East, but also by anyone wanting a deeper understanding of the realities and obstacles arising out of the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territories which block economic development, a sustainable future, and an end to conflic

Socio-economic rights in South Africa: symbols or substance?

Book review of: _Socio-economic rights in South Africa: symbols or substance?, edited by Malcolm Langford, Ben Cousins, Jackie Dugard and Tshepo Madlingozi, Cambridge University Press, 2014_ This comprehensive, edited volume of 15 chapters canvasses a wide range of contemporary perspectives on socio-economic rights mobilisation in South Africa, from various inter-disciplinary angles. For those who have followed the topic in recent years, the volume is a veritable ‘who’s who’ of scholars and scholar-activists involved in socio-economic rights mobilisation in South Africa, and in particular constitutional litigation. Several of the numerous, and often contested views on this important sub-area of human rights have previously featured in the pages of this journal

No Easy Walk: Advancing Refugee Protection in South Africa

South Africa only began accepting individual applications for political asylum in 1994. A policy designed to recognize former Mozambican refugees for the purposes of a repatriation program became the (awkward) basis of the asylum procedure up until April 2000. Criticized by some, a lively discussion raising often-contradictory views began in 1996, leading to a policy reform process culminating in the Refugees Act in December 1998. The Act only came into force at the beginning of April 2000. This article analyzes the process of policy development in South Africa, focusing on practical and theoretical challenges facing the government in the implementation of the new Act. Special attention is given to temporary protection, the proposed containment of applicants in reception centers, the arbitrary manner in which asylum is currently determined, and inconsistencies between the interfacing of the Refugees Act and the proposed immigration legislation. The paper concludes by asserting that the new legislation can be effective, but only if the government builds capacity, and if the procedure allows a fair opportunity for asylum applicants to be granted a credible hearing