Table Of ContentRegional appRoaches to the
pRotection of asylum seekeRs
law and migration
Series Editor
satvinder s. Juss, king’s college london, uk
migration and its subsets of refugee and asylum policy are rising up the policy
agenda at national and international level. current controversies underline the
need for rational and informed debate of this widely misrepresented and little
understood area.
Law and Migration contributes to this debate by establishing a monograph
series to encourage discussion and help to inform policy in this area. the series
provides a forum for leading new research principally from the law and legal
studies area but also from related social sciences. the series is broad in scope,
covering a wide range of subjects and perspectives.
Other titles in this series:
Immigration, Integration and the Law
The Intersection of Domestic, EU and International Legal Regimes
clíodhna murphy
978-1-4094-6251-4
Migrants and the Courts
A Century of Trial and Error?
geoffrey care
978-1-4094-5196-9
Migration, Work and Citizenship in the Enlarged European Union
samantha currie
978-0-7546-7351-4
Refugee Law and Practice in Japan
osamu arakaki
978-0-7546-7009-4
International Migration and Global Justice
satvinder Juss
978-0-7546-4671-6 (hbk)
978-0-7546-7289-0 (pbk)
Regional approaches to the
protection of asylum seekers
an international legal perspective
Edited by
ademola abass
United Nations University, Belgium
fRancesca ippolito
Cagliari University, Italy
© ademola abass, francesca ippolito and the contributors 2014
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
ademola abass and francesca ippolito have asserted their right under the copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
published by
ashgate publishing limited ashgate publishing company
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union Road suite 3-1
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the british library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Regional approaches to the protection of asylum seekers : an international legal
perspective / edited by ademola abass and francesca ippolito.
pages cm.—(law and migration)
includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-4094-4297-4 (hardback)—isbn 978-1-4094-4298-1 (ebook)—isbn 978-
1-4094-7458-6 (epub) 1. Refugees—legal status, laws, etc. 2. asylum, Right of.
i. abass, ademola, editor of compilation. ii. ippolito, francesca, editor of compilation.
k3230.R45R45 2014
342.08’3—dc23
2013041509
isbn 9781409442974 (hbk)
isbn 9781409442981 (ebk – pdf)
isbn 9781409474586 (ebk – epub)
II
printed in the united kingdom by henry ling limited,
at the dorset press, dorchester, dt1 1hd
Contents
Notes on Contributors vii
Preface xi
List of Abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction – Regional Approaches to the Protection of
Asylum Seekers: an International Legal Perspective 1
Ademola Abass and Francesca Ippolito
2 The African Union Legal Framework for Protecting Asylum
Seekers 19
Ademola Abass and Dominique Mystris
3 The Role of the African Human Rights System with Reference
to Asylum Seekers 45
Gino J. Naldi and Cristiano d’Orsi
4 Sub-regional Frameworks for the Protection of Asylum Seekers
and Refugees in Africa: Bringing Relief Closer to Trouble Zones 67
Solomon T. Ebobrah
5 The African National Human Rights Institutions and the
Protection of Asylum Seekers: Existing Practices and
Opportunities Through the Optional Protocol to the UN
Convention Against Torture 87
Elina Steinerte
6 Establishing the Common European Asylum System:
‘it’s a long long way to Tipperary’ 113
Francesca Ippolito
7 External Aspects of EU Asylum Law and Policy –
‘New’ Ways to Address ‘Old’ Woes 145
Samantha Velluti
vi Regional Approaches to the Protection of Asylum Seekers
8 The International Protection of Refugees and Asylum Seekers:
the Role of Article 3 of the European Convention on
Human Rights 171
Colin Harvey
9 ‘The Right to have Rights’: the European Convention on
Human Rights and the Procedural Rights of Asylum Seekers 191
Gina Clayton
10 The Protection of Asylum Seekers with Particular Reference
to African Women: the Contribution to the Contemporary
Jurisprudence 213
Rebecca Wallace
11 Fora and Programmes for Refugees in Latin America 245
Liliana Lyra Jubilut
12 Protection of Asylum Seekers under the Inter-American
Human Rights System 267
David James Cantor and Stefania Barichello
13 ASEAN and the Conceptualization of Refugee Protection in
Southeastern Asian States 295
Susan Kneebone
14 The 1989 Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) and
Refugee Policy in Southeast Asia: Twenty Years Forward
What Has Changed? 325
Sara E. Davies
15 The Protection of Asylum Seekers in East Asian State Parties
to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
and its 1967 Protocol 347
Kelley Loper
16 Conclusions: the Future of the Regional Protection of
Asylum Seekers 377
Ademola Abass and Francesca Ippolito
Index 381
Notes on Contributors
Ademola Abass is Head of the Peace & Security Programme and Research
Fellow at the United Nations University, Belgium. He was formerly Professor of
International Law and International Organizations at Brunel University, London,
and was the African Union’s first Expert on Regional Mechanisms. He regularly
consults for states and international organizations, and is currently a visiting
professor to several universities in Europe and Africa. Professor Abass researches
in public international law and peace and security. He is a Fellow of Cambridge
Commonwealth, and a member of the Academic Council on the United Nations
System (ACUNS).
Stefania Barichello is a Doctoral Candidate at the School of Advanced
Study, University of London. Her research focuses on refugee protection and
responsibility-sharing in Latin America, primarily the origins, development and
implementation of the Mexico Plan of Action. She has previously worked in the
fields of Refugee Law, Human Rights and Public International Law. She was an
intern with the Brazilian Mission.
Dr David James Cantor is Director of the Refugee Law Initiative and Reader
in Human Rights at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. He
researches on the protection of refugees and persons displaced by armed conflict
and generalized violence in the Andes, Central America and Mexico. His chapter
results from the ESRC-funded project Pushing the Boundaries: New Dynamics of
Forced Migration and Transnational Responses in Latin America (ES/K001051/1).
Gina Clayton has taught and written about immigration and asylum law since
1997. She is the author of the main student textbook on the subject in the UK and
a former editor of the Journal of Immigration Asylum and Nationality Law. She
has a special interest in the human rights of refugees, and is currently involved in
grassroots refugee organizations in South Yorkshire and research into the use of
internal relocation.
Sara E. Davies is Senior Research Fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith
University, Australia. She is Convenor of the Prevention of Genocide and Mass
Atrocities Program, Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. Sara’s
research interests are in global health governance, international refugee law and
the responsibility to protect. Sara has authored two books: Global Politics of
viii Regional Approaches to the Protection of Asylum Seekers
Health (Polity 2010) and Legitmiizing Rejection: International Refugee Law in
Asia (Martinus Nijhoff 2008).
Solomon T. Ebobrah, LLB (Rivers State University) and LLM, LLD (University
of Pretoria), is Senior Lecturer and Acting Head of the Department of Jurisprudence
and Public Law at the Faculty of Law, Niger Delta University, Nigeria and an
Extra-Ordinary Lecturer with the Centre for Human Rights, University of
Pretoria. He is an editor of the African Human Rights Law Journal. Dr Ebobrah
has worked as a Senior Legal Officer at the African Commission on Human and
Peoples’ Rights.
Colin Harvey is Professor of Human Rights Law at Queen’s University, Belfast,
and served as Head of School 2007–12. He was Professor of Constitutional and
Human Rights Law, School of Law, University of Leeds 2000–04 and has held
visiting positions at: University of Michigan, Fordham University and the London
School of Economics and Political Science. He publishes on human rights law
and politics. He is the General Editor of Human Rights Law in Perspective (a
new series published by Hart Publishing which he founded). He is on the editorial
board of Human Rights Law Review, Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly and
European Human Rights Law Review and is the Case Editor for the International
Journal of Refugee Law.
Francesca Ippolito JD (Bologna), PhD (Milan) is currently Assistant Professor of
International Law and the European Union at the University of Cagliari, Italy. She
served as Consultant in European Union Law at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in
Rome and she is currently the project leader of two international research projects
on Cooperation Agreements in the Mediterranean and on asylum seekers in Mare
Nostrum: a French and Italian appraisal of judicial practice. She was chosen to
be a member of the Research Center of the Hague Academy of International Law
on International Migrations in 2010 (directors G. Goodwin-Gill and P. Weckel)
and has been Visiting Fellow at the School of Law, University of Glasgow as
well as Visiting Professor in European Union law in France at the University
Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV. Dr Ippolito has written extensively in the area of EU
migration and asylum law and non-discrimination.
Liliana Lyra Jubilut, PhD and Masters in International Law (Universidade de
São Paulo, Brazil) and LLM in International Legal Studies (NYU School of Law,
New York), is Visiting Scholar at the Columbia Law School, Professor of the Post-
Graduate Program Stricto Sensu in Law at Universidade Católica de Santos, Brazil
and has been working with refugee issues in Brazil for 14 years.
Susan Kneebone is a Professor of Law at Monash University. She has published
widely on issues of forced migration, human trafficking and refugee law. Since
2003, Kneebone has been a member of the International Association for the Study
Notes on Contributors ix
of Forced Migration (IASFM) and is currently Secretary for IASFM. Professor
Kneebone teaches Forced Migration and Human Rights, International Refugee
Law and Practice, and Citizenship and Migration Law. Professor Kneebone is the
leader of the Asia Pacific Forced Migration Connection (APFMC), established as
an Institutional Partner with the Refugee Research Network (RRN – see http://
www.refugeeresearch.net/), Refugee Studies Centre Canada.
Kelley Loper is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University
of Hong Kong. She also serves as the Director of the LLM in Human Rights
Programme, Deputy Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law, and
Co-Editor in Chief of the Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law.
Dominique Mystris is Visiting Lecturer, Bedford University, United Kingdom.
She has served both in the United Kingdom and in international research
institutions and organizations, including the United Nations University-Institute
of Comparative and Regional Integration Studies in Bruges, Belgium; the
International Refugee Rights Initiative in Kampala, Uganda; and REDRESS in
London. She has consulted for a number of non-profit organizations on human rights
issues and developed policy and advocacy approaches. Her research interests lie in
the areas of international law, peace and security policy; frameworks for regional
organizations; as well as issues pertaining to conflict and post-conflict situations.
Gino J. Naldi, LLM, PhD, spent 30 years in higher education but is presently an
independent scholar, specializing in Public International Law and International
Human Rights. He has published widely on these subjects with special reference
to Africa. He is author, with Professor Konstantin Magliveras, of The African
Union (Kluwer 2009).
Cristiano d’Orsi is a post-doctoral research scholar at the University of Michigan
Law School, affiliated to the Program in Refugee and Asylum Law. He holds a
PhD in International Relations (International Law) from the Graduate Institute of
International and Development Studies in Geneva and a two-year DEA (Masters
equivalent) from the same institution. He also holds a one-year certificate in
diplomatic studies from the Italian Society for International Organization in Rome.
Dr Elina Steinerte is Research Associate at the Human Rights Implementation
Centre, Law School, University of Bristol. Elina joined the School in June 2006 on
a significant AHRC-funded research project examining the implementation of the
Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT). Thus Elina has
been involved in OPCAT-related processes in over 30 countries and has worked
closely with the OHCHR and the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture. She
is the co-author of The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture
(OUP 2011).
