Activity

ASSIGNMENT – 6
1. Who is a “refugee”?
A refugee is defined under the Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on Refugees as a person who, owing to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his origin and is unable or unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear , is unwilling to return to it.

2. Are IDPs protected by international law?
Internal displacement appears often in response to armed conflict, persecution, situations of widespread violence, natural and human-made disasters and, more recently, large-scale development projects. IDPs are generally protected by international human rights law and especially by the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (See chiefly Principles 5; 6 and 8) which however are non-binding legal instrument; – In situations of armed conflict, they are protected by IHL; … Under IHL, people are protected from and during displacement as civilians, provided they do not take a direct part in hostilities. Along with domestic law, international humanitarian law (in cases of internal armed conflict), and human rights law are applicable to persons who flee from one area to another within the borders of their own country and who thus become internally displaced persons (IDPs). As it is important to ensure that the displaced are not deprived of their human rights, states have the duty to provide special measures of protection and assistance to IDPs that correspond to these vulnerabilities in order to ensure that IDPs are treated equally with respect to non-displaced citizens.

3. How is refugee status determined when thousands of civilians are fleeing an armed conflict?
In situations of armed conflict, there are usually massive movements of civilians across international borders, hampering the ability to conduct case-by-case interviews and individual status determination. In those cases, the fleeing civilians might be given protection on a prima facie basis, which means that they are assumed to have fled a situation where civilians are targeted and massively persecuted.