Rights of Refugees

Abstract

The point and purpose of the definition of a refugee so far discussed in the preceding chapters is that a refugee be afforded the rights set out in the Refugee Convention. The most important of these rights is the right of non-refoulement set out at Article 33 of the Refugee Convention: the right not to be returned to face persecution. It is far from the only right the Refugee Convention bestows on a refugee, though. This chapter briefly outlines the rights of refugees at Articles 2 to 34 and the way in which the Refugee Convention imparts those rights to refugees at different points in their literal then metaphorical journey as refugees. The key reference point for analysis and understanding of the rights of refugees is Professor James Hathaway’s substantial work on the subject, The Rights of Refugees under International Law, at the time of writing in its second edition. Hathaway begins by observing that the rights of refugees were in the past largely uncontroversial in the industrialized world because most such countries admitted refugees as long-term residents, either formally or in practice. In doing so, these countries broadly, if incidentally, imparted rights in compliance with the requirements of the Refugee Convention. It was therefore access to the territory, the definition of a refugee and the refugee status determination process that were controversial. The reverse was true in the developing world, where the vast majority of the world’s refugees are hosted.