Original scientific paper
In Search of a Comprehensive European System for the Protection of ’Non-convention’ Refugees
Janina W. Dacyl
; Centre for Research in International Migration and Ethnic Relations, University of Stockholm
Abstract
In the first part of this essay the major insufficiencies of the existing international refugee regime to cope with the post-Cold War mass flows of ’non-convention’ refugees were briefly reviewed. This was followed by a repertory of arguments for the need of the creation of the regional protection regime in Europe, to be called the Comprehensive European System for the Protection of ’Non-Convention’ refugees, (CES). Subsequently, some light was shed on the connotation of the overall aim of the postulated system, as well as upon its basic tenet: the ’burden-sharing’ principle.
Having in mind a growth in the perception of the refugee problems as ’high' politics issues, it was argued that the CES would need to take into consideration not only the protection claims of refugees but also the structural features of the contemporary international system, as well as the response preferences of the donor/host nations. It is only in such a situation that one has a realistic chance to convince potential donor/host states to agree on legal sanctioning by the future CES of their obligations to bear a fair' share of the settlement of the large-scale non-convention refugee problems. Only then is there a chance to provide the minimum legal guarantees that responses to ’non-convention ’ refugees would not be dependent merely — to use Hannah Arendt’s expression — ’upon charity and chance' but upon a fixed set of rules guaranteed by the civilized international community.
Keywords
refugee; protection; refugee status; refugee policies; human rights
Hrčak ID:
154609
URI
Publication date:
30.6.1995.
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