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Refugee Convention

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The Michigan Guidelines On Well-Founded Fear, Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law Jan 2005

The Michigan Guidelines On Well-Founded Fear, Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law

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An individual qualifies as a Convention refugee only if he or she has a "well-founded fear" of being persecuted. While it is generally agreed that the "well-founded fear" requirement limits refugee status to persons who face an actual, forward-looking risk of being persecuted (the "objective element"), linguistic ambiguity has resulted in a divergence of views regarding whether the test also involves assessment of the state of mind of the person seeking recognition of refugee status (the "subjective element").


Interpretation Of The Definition Of 'Refugee' Under Art. 1(A)(2) Of The Convention Relating To The Status Of Refugees, With A View To The Elaboration Of A Community Instrument To Guide The Application Of The Refugee Convention Pursuant To Art.63(1)(C) Of The Treaty Of The European Communities, James C. Hathaway Jan 2001

Interpretation Of The Definition Of 'Refugee' Under Art. 1(A)(2) Of The Convention Relating To The Status Of Refugees, With A View To The Elaboration Of A Community Instrument To Guide The Application Of The Refugee Convention Pursuant To Art.63(1)(C) Of The Treaty Of The European Communities, James C. Hathaway

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In approaching the task of recommending how to structure a Directive on common minimum standards for the recognition ofrefugee status in the Member States of the European Union, I have struggled to avoid two extremes. On the one hand, my recommendations might simply have reflected a search for the common denominator of relevant practice. The risk of this sort of analysis is, of course, that it clearly promotes a "race to the bottom," in which those States which presently fully implement their international obligations are encouraged to reduce the standard of protection. The alternative extreme would have been to define …