Part V The Scope of Refugee Protection, Ch.45 Conflict Refugees

Subject(s):

Asylum — Non-refoulement — Armed conflict

Armed conflicts have always been and still are major causes of refugee movements. They invariably cause human suffering, destroying State and societal structure and affecting the lives of civilian populations. While it is difficult to contest that people should not be returned to conflict, different thinking and practices are discernable in relation to the applicable legal framework for providing refugee protection to people displaced across borders by conflict. These discrepancies arise in part from the way in which conflicts are understood; the way in which the definition of a refugee in the Refugee Convention has been interpreted and applied; and in part from limitations in the definition itself. Recognizing ‘conflict refugees’ as refugees within the international legal framework requires an understanding of the dynamics of conflicts and a dynamic interpretation of the refugee definitions at global and regional levels.