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9 - Human Rights

Messing with the Definition

from Part II - Exploring the Limits of Protection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2021

Janna Wessels
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
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Summary

Chapter 9 argues that a new layer of complication was added with the so-called human rights–based approach to refugee law. The challenge is that refugee protection is lesser in scope than human rights protection. That ‘lesser’ protection is usually located in the persecution element: while reference to human rights has opened up refugee law to a wider range of harms, not every human rights violation reaches the threshold of persecution. The chapter shows that one consequence of the human rights–based approach is the risk of conceptually merging Convention ground and persecution. According to the human rights approach, a violation of the freedom of religion or the freedom of thought can amount to persecution. In other words, prohibitions on the expression of the Convention grounds in themselves can be considered persecutory. The chapter reveals that this has led to the invention of an alternative or additional kind of harm that stands next to the harm that is inflicted in case the claimant does express the Convention ground – or is discovered in another way. This approach builds on and reinforces ‘discretion’ reasoning, because it distinguishes on the basis of the claimant’s future behaviour and requires ‘discretion’ under certain circumstances.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Concealment Controversy
Sexual Orientation, Discretion Reasoning and the Scope of Refugee Protection
, pp. 198 - 230
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Human Rights
  • Janna Wessels, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
  • Book: The Concealment Controversy
  • Online publication: 19 July 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108938402.012
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  • Human Rights
  • Janna Wessels, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
  • Book: The Concealment Controversy
  • Online publication: 19 July 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108938402.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Human Rights
  • Janna Wessels, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
  • Book: The Concealment Controversy
  • Online publication: 19 July 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108938402.012
Available formats
×