Protection Against Refoulement from Europe: Human Rights Law Comes to the Rescue
International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 3, 1999
Posted: 30 Jan 2009
Date Written: July 1, 1999
Abstract
A growing opinion has appeared in refugee and human rights discourse that the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms provides more extensive protection against refoulement (i.e., forced return to a country where the life or freedom of a person is at risk) than the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. However, uncertainties remain as to whether the protection offered by the 1984 Convention against Torture and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights may substitute, or, rather reinforce, that of the European Convention. Which of these four instruments offer the greatest protection against a decision of refoulement from a European country? Through a comparative study of the key elements of the individual complaints procedures, this article examines the practical advantages and disadvantages of each of these instruments. It concludes that the most generous protection against refoulement from Europe lies in the development of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, in particular with regard to proceedings based on article 3 of the European Convention.
Keywords: Refugee Law, Human Rights Law, ECHR, CAT, ICCPR, Refoulement
JEL Classification: K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation