Refugee Law, Gender, and the Human Rights Paradigm

Abstract

The function of the international human rights regime is to judge whether states are fulfilling their duties under internationally agreed upon human rights norms and, through monitoring and publicizing, to deter future abuse: in short, to change the behavior of states. Refugee law grants protection to a subset of persons who have fled human rights abuses. Human rights lawyers and scholars have viewed refugee law as too embedded in domestic immigration law and institutions. Determinations of refugee status entail contextualized, practical applications of human rights norms. Refugee law is confronting issues on the forefront of the human rights agenda, especially questions of gender and women's rights. The states have applied a human rights paradigm in evaluating the instances of violence against women as serious harm within the scope of persecution. Refugee law has built on the work of the international human rights movement and has the potential to have a substantial impact on human rights law.