Part III Regional Regimes, Ch.17 Regional Refugee Regimes: Latin America

Subject(s):

Asylum — Non-refoulement — Regional co-operation — Regional organizations

This chapter shows how Latin America has played a rather innovative and creative role in the development of regional political asylum and refugee regimes. It reviews both the historical contribution of Latin America’s political asylee and refugee sub-regimes, and the region’s protection situation and key challenges. The chapter aims to answer the following questions: what is the concept of the prevailing asylum regime in Latin America and what are its sub-regimes? What is the current protection legal framework in the region? What is the institutional framework and its contribution to the protection of asylum seekers, political asylees, and refugees in Latin America? What are the major protection challenges currently faced by the region? In terms of its regional coverage, it considers that, of the 35 independent States of the Americas that are members of the Organization of American States, 20 of these may be regarded as Latin American States—that is, bearers of Spanish, Portuguese, or French cultural and linguistic heritage.