Human Rights, Refugees, and Other Displaced Persons in International Law

This chapter discusses the conflict between human rights and expulsion in the context of international refugee law and considers the constraints placed upon states by international human rights law with respect to their right to control entry and deportation. While human rights bodies regularly reiterate the right of states to control who can enter and reside in their territory, the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol apparently provide an international exception. For states parties, there is an obligation not to refoule a person who qualifies as a refugee. Nonetheless, this constraint on states' sovereign powers gives rise to several issues pertaining to hierarchies and regime interaction. The chapter demonstrates that there arises regime interaction between various international instruments, while a clear human rights hierarchy is not yet emerging.