The number of refugees worldwide has never been higher, with an estimate of 65.3 million forcibly displaced persons by the end of 2015. The brunt of the material, economic and social burdens these waves of often destitute persons represent is borne by a minority of closeproximity States, ill-equipped to handle mass influxes of people in dire need of protection and assistance. This dissertation explores the legal obligations of States to share the burden of international refugees, through four select research questions. Firstly, the existence of universal and regional obligations to burden-share are examined. Secondly, the legality of the 'third safe country' notion is examined under international law. Thirdly, the economic responsibilities of refugee-generating States towards refugees, asylum States and the UNHCR is examined. Fourthly, the obligations of States to rescue asylum seekers in distress at sea, and to process their asylum claims is examined. The fundamental observation of the dissertation is that although the 1951 Convention provides a generous set of rights to persecuted persons, its primary shortcoming in the context of this dissertation, is the lack of a clear and positive obligation, ensuring a fair distribution of the burdens of refugees between the signatory States. However, regional efforts do, to a degree, mitigate this issue by establishing obligations which seek to distribute the costs and burdens of refugees.

The apparent normative and implementation gaps within the international refugee protection regime suggest the need to reform its implementation and accountability processes. Increasingly, the focus is being shifted to local or domestic actors to attempt to address the challenges faced in realising refugee rights effectively. Among the key domestic accountability actors for the realisation of rights, are national human rights institutions (NHRIs). NHRIs are considered a bridge between the international and domestic human rights systems. NHRIs act as entities that facilitate the diffusion of international human rights norms and standards, including those with respect to refugee rights, into the national spheres. Notwithstanding this, there is paucity in empirical evidence within the refugee rights discourse on the role that NHRIs can play to promote the effective realisation of refugee rights. This study explores the role that NHRIs in South Africa and Kenya play in promoting and protecting refugee rights. It utilises a non-doctrinal and qualitative research approach, to examine the extent to which the NHRIs engage with refugee rights and to explore their capacity to do so effectively. It situates NHRIs within the nexus between international human rights law and international refugee law to frame the understanding for their role within the refugee protection regime. The findings indicate that the NHRIs in South Africa and Kenya that are compliant with the Paris Principles display significant engagement with refugee rights promotion and protection. As accountability mechanisms, they have contributed to the development and implementation of domestic refugee law and policy in accordance with international norms and standards. This has occurred despite the lack of an explicit refugee rights' promotion and protection mandate, but they face barriers and challenges. Various underlying factors that impede their effectiveness to address refugee rights were identified. These included the sociopolitical contexts within which they operate, capacity constraints and invisibility within the refugee protection regime. The socio-political challenges included xenophobia and the securitisation of the asylum space. These compounded organisational and operational weaknesses such as scarce specialist skills in refugee law, limited financial resources, and the absence of strategic and sustained partnerships for refugee rights protection. The overall absence of norms for NHRI engagement with refugee rights was identified as a contributory factor for the lack of a coherent approach for promoting and protecting these rights. Possible avenues to enhance NHRI engagement with refugee rights were identified. For instance, NHRIs building partnerships for refugee rights promotion and protection with CSOs, the UNHCR and regional institutions based on a clear understanding of an NHRI's role as accountability mechanisms. For NHRIs, the imperative lies in building their capacity to address refugee rights to ensure a clear understanding of what the promotion and protection of these rights entails.

Women in the Context of International Refugee Law Abstract The refugee definition enshrined in Article 1(A)(2) of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees does not mention gender or sex as a potentially relevant factor when establishing the refugee status. However, with the human rights evolution at the end of the 20th century, it became imperative that the definition is interpreted in a way which will provide protection to women facing either gender-specific persecution (persecution in specific forms only applicable to women for the reason of their sex), or gender-related persecution (persecution for the reason of being a woman). The thesis explores the interpretation of the notion of gender-specific persecution and discusses several examples of this form of persecution: forced marriage, female genital mutilation and sexual violence. Then it considers the Convention grounds for persecution (i.e. particular social group, political opinion, religion, race and nationality) and a variety of possible arguments for a gender- sensitive interpretation of these grounds for the purpose of encompassing cases of women facing persecution because of their opposition, whether explicit or tacit, to patriarchal traditional societies based on inequality between sexes manifesting for example in resistance to female...

in English - The Status of Child Soldiers in International Refugee Law The main aim of this thesis is to investigate to what extent the international refugee law protects children who flee from armed forces recruitment. The chosen problem was solved using the question whether it is possible to grant a refugee status according to the 1951 Refugee Convention, or a status complementing the refugee status according to regional regulatory instruments, to a child who flees from armed forces recruitment. The conception of the refugee status was divided into constituent elements and it was considered whether children who flee from recruitment into armed forces and former child soldiers comply with attributes of these elements. The first examined element is the inclusion clause. In this part, the thesis examined the following questions: Is recruitment of children into armed forces and their use in hostilities a form of persecution? Can such children be considered a particular social group? Can rejection of participation in armed forces by such children be considered holding a political opinion? Is there a causal link between persecution and membership to a particular social group or between persecution and holding a political opinion in the context of children who flee from recruitment into armed forces?...

Refugee camps, mostly located in the Global South, host millions of human beings and mirror the overburden and incapacity of humanitarian response. If these places were once supposedly created to aggregate asylum-seekers temporarily, now they have become the norm for prolonged stays where future generations grow.This thesis explores the viability of the UNHCR’s durable solutions for Rohingya Refugees- local integration, resettlement, and repatriation. Moreover, it questions the role of non-state actors when it comes to decision-making in refugee governance. The analysis is conducted through a critical interpretive synthesis. The selected literature was scrutinized and linked to theoretical concepts such as human security, securitization of migration, legal pluralism, and complex interdependence.In summary, the literature analyzed shares a unanimity that, although conditions in the camps are unsustainable for permanent stays, efforts to build better futures for refugees are not being explored enough. This is mainly due to a reluctance of States to accept refugees on behalf of their integrity and security, in the sense that refugees are perceived as threats to their sovereignty. In this sense, potential efforts by non-state actors to provide a sustainable future for refugees fall behind: in a scenario where national security prevails, keeping refugees in the camp seems to be the safest choice.

Submitted by Rosina Valeria Lanzellotti Mattiussi Teixeira (rosina.teixeira@unisantos.br) on 2018-01-15T12:31:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tainan Henrique Siqueira.pdf: 1213456 bytes, checksum: 6d320ab740e020411f45ed21152941c1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-01-15T12:31:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tainan Henrique Siqueira.pdf: 1213456 bytes, checksum: 6d320ab740e020411f45ed21152941c1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-11 / The refugee is an individual who has been forced to leave his country of origin and has come to an asylum state due to persecution motivated by race, religion, nationality, political opinion and belonging to a specific social group. In Brazil, the concept of refugee, besides the persecution factor, is also applied to every individual who left a State of origin because of "grave and widespread human rights violations." The Country of Origin Information (COI) is a tool used by decision-makers during the applicant's Refugee Status Determination (RSD) procedure of refugee. Among decision makers using the COI in Brazil, the government, through the National Committee for Refugees (CONARE), is the main actor. Therefore, the objective of this dissertation is to analyze how CONARE understands and uses the COI in its RSD procedure, based on the main international guidelines adopted by the most respected actors within this theme. The general evidence found shows that the practices adopted by CONARE do not follow some international recommendations - such as: the independence of the institutions of eligibility for refugee status and COI research; updating and using COI reports from trusted sources; cooperation within the COI; and training of COI eligibility actors and researchers - due to structural difficulties. The conclusion suggests that institutional cooperation within the COI can be an alternative of improving COI use according to international recommendations. / O refugiado é todo indivíduo que, de forma forçada, saiu do seu Estado de origem e foi para um Estado de asilo em função da perseguição motivada por: raça, religião, nacionalidade, opinião política e pertencimento a um grupo social específico. No Brasil, o conceito de refugiado, além do fator perseguição, é aplicado também a todo indivíduo que saiu de um Estado de origem em razão de ¿graves e generalizadas violações de direitos humanos¿. O Country of Origin Information (COI), em português, conhecido como ¿Informação sobre o Estado de Origem¿, é uma ferramenta utilizada pelos tomadores de decisão, durante o procedimento de Determinação do Status de Refugiado (RSD, na sigla em inglês) do solicitante de refúgio. Entre os tomadores de decisão que utilizam a COI, no Brasil, o governo, através do Comitê Nacional para os Refugiados (CONARE), é o principal ator. Por isso, o objetivo dessa dissertação é analisar como o CONARE entende e utiliza a COI em seu procedimento de RSD, tendo como base as principais diretrizes internacionais adotadas pelos atores mais respeitados dentro dessa temática. As evidências gerais encontradas demonstram que as práticas adotadas pelo CONARE não seguem algumas recomendações internacionais - como: a independência dos órgãos de elegibilidade do status de refúgio e de pesquisa em COI; atualização e utilização de relatórios COI de fontes confiáveis; cooperação institucional no âmbito da COI; e capacitação dos atores de elegibilidade e pesquisadores COI - devido a dificuldades estruturais. A conclusão sugere que a cooperação institucional no âmbito da COI pode ser uma saída para o aperfeiçoamento do uso da COI, de acordo com as recomendações internacionais.

En caso de desplazamiento masivo, resulta imposible determinar inmediatamente de manera individual los temores de persecución de las personas que integran el grupo. Precisamente, ante la realidad desconsoladora de la promoción de una protección internacional exclusivamente aplicable a un tipo de refugiados casi inexistente, la cada vez menos frecuente determinación en grupo y prima facie de refugiados, la proliferación de estatutos subsidiarios, el aumento del desplazamiento interno y las restricciones que imponen los Estados por motivo de seguridad nacional u orden público, se consideró que un estudio sobre la protección de los flujos masivos podría facilitar la obtención de una visión general del estado actual de la protección temporal y de las obligaciones que se han desarrollado para hacer frente a tales contingencias. A partir del planteamiento inicial de los retos y obstáculos legales que este fenómeno ha planteado para los Estados receptores y para la evolución del Derecho internacional de los refugiados y de la inexistencia de un régimen jurídico internacional universal que regule la protección de los flujos masivos, se ha elaborado una construcción doctrinal y práctica sobre la protección de esta situación en el Derecho internacional, sistematizando los distintos elementos que se han ido incorporando a esta protección colectiva.Se ha analizado la protección de los flujos masivos con el ánimo de dotar de rasgos positivos a un concepto que ha sido considerado como un avance negativo en el ámbito de la protección internacional. Y es que la protección temporal no tiene por qué reducir estándares de protección ni tampoco sustituir a la protección internacional clásica, que es la de los refugiados. / In cases of mass displacement, it is not possible to determine immediately the individual fears of persecution of those persons belonging to the larger group. It is precisely in view of the promotion of an international legal framework of protection exclusively applicable to an almost inexistent category of refugees; of the progressively less frequent group determination and prima facie determination for refugees; of the proliferation of subsidiary statutes; and of the increase in internal displacement and the restrictions imposed by States due to national security and public order, that it was considered important to undertake a study about the protection of large groups who are displaced to provide a comprehensive view of the current approach to temporary protection and of States' obligations vis a vis this reality. Taking into account the challenges and legal obstacles that mass influx situations have caused to recipient countries, to the evolution of International Refugee Law, and to the non-existence of an international universal judicial regimen that regulates the protection of mass refugee groups, this thesis has developed a doctrinal and practical construction about this form of protection in International Law, systematizing all the different elements that have been included in this collective kind of protection.Mass influx protection has been analysed with the intention of highlighting positive aspects of a concept that has been considered a negative advance in the international protection framework. Temporary Protection need not reduce protection standards nor substitute the classic international protection given to refugees.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Latin America has been experiencing in the last years critical cases of forced displacement. This phenomenon is followed by the adoption of a series of initiatives that seem to follow successful efforts around the world. The approach of this thesis on International Refugee law in Latin America is justified on the Latin American tradition in terms of asylum, refugee and human rights, and intends to contribute by analysing the solidarity proposals of Mexico s Plan of Action based on the thought of Hannah Arendt. The general objective of this thesis is to investigate how the question of the International Refugee law in Latin America was configured, from the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees of 1984 until the Mexico Plan of Action of 2004, in order to contribute for the building of a a sui generis Latin American treatment regimen. The line of thought follows the reflection by Arendt on the basic requirements for the exercise of the human condition. Contemporary social, economic and political situations contribute to make men more superfluous and without a place in the world. The text is divided in two chapters. The first intends to provide an understanding of the asylum constitution and its consolidation under a juridical, social and individualist approach. The second chapter aims at understanding the International Refugee Law in Latin America, more specifically the Mexico Plan of Action, on the light of the intellectual legacy of Arendt. It pays particular attention to the meaning of citizenship as the right to have rights , fundamental to the human condition and collectively constructed in the public space. The final considerations point out to the advances of the proposals of the Mexico Plan s three programs in the search for more durable solutions and for the possibility for refugee and asylum seekers to have a life that goes beyond the biological life. What is more, a life that can reach political action and a full human condition, as prophesized Hannah Arendt. / A América Latina tem experimentado nos últimos anos casos graves de deslocamento forçado de indivíduos, fenômeno acompanhado pela adoção de uma série de iniciativas que parecem apontar para esforços reparadores situados entre os mais bem sucedidos no mundo. O enfoque desse trabalho no Direito Internacional dos Refugiados na América Latina justifica-se diante da tradição latinoamericana em matéria de asilo, refúgio e direitos humanos e pretende contribuir ao procurar examinar as propostas solidárias do Plano de Ação do México à luz do pensamento de Hannah Arendt. O objetivo geral desta dissertação é investigar como se configurou a questão do Direito Internacional dos Refugiados na América Latina, desde a Declaração de Cartagena para Refugiados de 1984 até o Plano de Ação do México de 2004, no sentido de contribuir para a construção de um regime de tratamento latino-americano sui generis. O fio condutor da reflexão é o pensamento de Arendt sobre os requisitos básicos para o exercício da condição humana, pois no mundo contemporâneo persistem situações sociais, políticas e econômicas que contribuem para tornar os homens supérfluos e sem lugar em um mundo comum. O texto está dividido em dois capítulos. O primeiro objetiva proporcionar uma compreensão da constituição do instituto do refúgio e sua consolidação sob uma perspectiva coletiva (jurídico-social) e individualista. O segundo visa compreender o Direito Internacional dos Refugiados na América Latina, mais especificamente o Plano de Ação do México, à luz do legado intelectual de Arendt, em especial da acepção de cidadania como direito a ter direitos , fundamental à condição humana e construída coletivamente no espaço público. As considerações finais sinalizam pontualmente os avanços das propostas dos três programas do Plano de Ação do México em busca de soluções mais duráveis e à possibilidade, aos refugiados e solicitantes de refúgio, de uma vida que vá além da vida biológica e possa chegar à ação política e a uma condição humana plena, como vaticinou Hannah Arendt.

Submitted by Rosina Valeria Lanzellotti Mattiussi Teixeira (rosina.teixeira@unisantos.br) on 2017-02-21T16:16:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Camila Marques Gilberto.pdf: 1029531 bytes, checksum: 2d61de2b9dad88156cc0a9e0a886328b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-21T16:16:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Camila Marques Gilberto.pdf: 1029531 bytes, checksum: 2d61de2b9dad88156cc0a9e0a886328b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-12 / This study deals with the evolution of the refugee concept and its growing dialogue with the International Human Rights Law. International Refugee Law stems from the Second World War and seeks to protect more and more individuals whose human rights are systematically violated (civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights), and due to those violations are forced to leave their countries in search of international protection. More than identifying an individual in a situation of vulnerability, it is necessary to recognize him as a refugee and to allow him access to a system of rights. In this perspective, the concept of refugee remains vital for the system of protection resulting in constant conceptual expansion through interpretations in light of International Human Rights Law. Therefore, this work has the specific objective of analyzing the concept established by the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the regional advances that have broadened the scope of the universal definition, especially in the regional context of the Inter-American Human Rights System. The protection approach used in the context of the Americas is analyzed in the light of the 1984 Cartagena Declaration, the American Convention of Human Rights, and other universal protection instruments. The progress observed regionally is translated into a recent precedent of the Inter-American System, Pacheco Tineo vs. Plurinational State of Bolivia. The rights ensured in this case demonstrate that the region is moving towards the consolidation of a refugee protection system that is based on the analysis of demands in light of International Human Rights Law. Although the case has not brought conceptual advances, it has brought a series of procedural advances that result in the recognition and protection sought by individuals in situations of extreme vulnerability. The methodology used in this study is based on descriptive and normative approaches, based on bibliographical, documentary and jurisprudential research. The analysis uses reference works on International Human Rights Law, International Refugee Law and on the Inter-American Human Rights System. The method used is a deductive approach, starting with the construction of the concept of refugee throughout the twentieth century and analyzing the complementarity of the human protection aspects represented in the judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. / O presente trabalho trata da evolução do conceito de refugiado e sua crescente interlocução com o Direito Internacional dos Direitos Humanos. O Direito Internacional dos Refugiados tem origem após a Segunda Guerra Mundial e busca proteger cada vez mais indivíduos que, por terem seus direitos humanos (direitos civis e políticos e direitos econômicos, sociais e culturais) sistematicamente violados, são obrigados a deixar seus países em busca de proteção internacional em outro local. Mais do que identificar um indivíduo em situação de vulnerabilidade, é necessário reconhecê-lo enquanto refugiado e permitir a ele acesso a um sistema de direitos. Assim, o conceito de refugiado segue vital para o sistema de proteção resultando em constante expansão conceitual por via de interpretações à luz do Direito Internacional dos Direitos Humanos. Nesta perspectiva, este trabalho tem como objetivo específico analisar o conceito estabelecido pela Convenção de 1951 Relativa ao Status dos Refugiados e os avanços regionais que ampliaram o alcance da definição universal, especialmente no contexto regional do Sistema Interamericano de Direitos Humanos. A abordagem de proteção utilizada no contexto das Américas é analisada à luz da Declaração de Cartagena de 1984, da Convenção Americana de Direitos Humanos e demais instrumentos universais de proteção. Os avanços observados regionalmente são traduzidos em precedente recente do Sistema Interamericano, o Caso Família Pacheco Tineo vs. Estado Plurinacional da Bolívia. Os direitos assegurados, neste caso, demonstram que a região caminha para a consolidação de um sistema de proteção ao refugiado que prima pela análise de demandas à luz do Direito Internacional dos Direitos Humanos. Muito embora o caso não tenha trazido avanços conceituais, trouxe uma série de avanços procedimentais que resultam no reconhecimento e proteção almejados por indivíduos em situação de extrema vulnerabilidade. A metodologia empregada no presente trabalho é de abordagens descritivas e normativas, com base em pesquisa bibliográfica, documental e jurisprudencial. O trabalho utiliza obras de referência sobre o Direito Internacional dos Direitos Humanos, Direito Internacional dos Refugiados e sobre o Sistema Interamericano de Direitos Humanos. O método utilizado é de abordagem dedutivo, pelo qual parte-se da construção do conceito de refugiado ao longo do século XX e da análise da complementaridade das vertentes de proteção da pessoa humana representadas no julgamento proferido pela Corte Interamericana de Direitos Humanos.

South Africa is seen as a major destination for refugees and asylum-seekers and is, according to the 2010 Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the world’s highest destination country for asylum-seekers, mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa. Following the 1994 democratic elections, there was a transformation in foreign policy, embracing the African Agenda, and South Africa became a major country of destination because of its relative prosperity in Africa. As a State Party to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention on the Status of Refugees, South Africa is under a legal obligation to protect refugees and grant them legal rights. At the same time, South African citizens, who had legitimate aspirations that the 1994 democratic government would address their development challenges, opposed the significant flow of refugees into the country by violent acts of xenophobia. The government, seen as a moral authority internationally with human rights being a key principle underpinning its foreign policy, found itself between the promotion of the African Agenda and its commitments to its own citizens. The refugee issue was addressed in the United Nations where the government made multilateral diplomacy a central platform of its foreign policy, a policy embedded in Africa and the South. South Africa is used as a case study to determine how it used multilateral diplomacy in the United Nations refugee regime through its coalition, the African Group, to address the migration issue. The study draws out the weaknesses of the international refugee regime by discussing the roles of two important diplomatic actors: the sovereign states in the United Nations General Assembly, and the international organization mandated to supervise the international refugee regime, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. South Africa’s foreign policy objective of promoting the African Agenda at times conflicts with the promotion of its national interest. Its progressive Constitution (1996) provides economic, social, and cultural rights to refugees, to the resentment of its own citizens, who view the refugees as beneficiaries of the United Nations. The study provides a critical analysis of South Africa’s multilateral diplomacy, and also provides the following recommendations where South Africa could use this mode more effectively to address the migration issue: Reform the international refugee regime; Allocate funds from the United Nations regularly assessed budget to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; and, Develop an international normative regulatory framework for irregular migrants. / Dissertation (MDiplomatic Studies)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Political Sciences / Unrestricted