Wednesday 13 January 2010

Article on ECHR and Refugees

I have not reported it earlier, but a few months ago Karl C. Procaccini published the article 'Constructing the Right “Not to Be Made a Refugee” at the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights' in the online Harvard Human Rights Journal. This is the introduction:

This note is motivated by a basic premise: Governments must be held accountable for creating refugee flows. There are over nine million refugees in the world today who have been persecuted at home and forced to seek asylum abroad. The human cost of this massive upheaval and migration is incalculable. By definition, refugees have a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country based on their fundamental beliefs or characteristics. Refugees flee persecution, armed conflicts, and brutality. In their new host countries, refugees face numerous challenges adapting to new cultures, languages, and environs while separated from family and social support networks.