Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Tables -- Notes on contributors -- Acknowledgments -- Table of cases -- Table of treaties and other international instruments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- The refugee definition -- The role of UNHCR -- State responses and individual rights -- The European regime -- Part 1 The evolving refugee definition -- 1 The refugee definition as law: issues of interpretation -- The ordinary meaning of the refugee definition -- Significance of the travaux préparatoires -- Purposes of the refugee definition -- Protection of the innocent -- The persecution of difference -- Collective guilt -- Political opinion and expression -- Other possible purposes -- Politically motivated opposition to oppressive regimes -- Human rights protection -- Implications -- Social group persecution -- Proof and presumptions -- Core meaning -- Bibliography -- 2 The Geneva refugee definition and the 'theory of the three scales' -- Does the Convention definition still hold good today? -- The 'theory of the three scales' -- The level of risk (When is there well-founded fear?) ('R') -- The level of violation of basic human rights (What constitutes persecution?) ('P') -- The level of proof (What constitutes suffcient proof of well-founded fear of being persecuted?) ('P') -- The theory of the three scales ('R', 'P', 'P') -- Bibliography -- 3 Who is a refugee? The Convention definition: universal or obsolete? -- Introduction: the original concept -- 'Flexibility'and ambiguity of the Convention definition -- Subsequent developments and regional responses of developing countries -- The impact of new developments and of regional definitions at the global level -- The eroding contours of the 'refugee' definition -- Convention definition in European interpretation.

The concept of 'refugee' in the developed countries outside Europe -- The 'refugee' definition and customary international law -- Bibliography -- Documents and offcial publications -- Literature -- 4 Beyond the Geneva Convention: constructing a de facto right of asylum from international human rights instruments -- International instruments in addition to the Geneva Convention -- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- The Convention Against Torture -- The European Convention on Human Rights -- The European Social Charter -- Other regional conventions -- Asylum seekers' right to enter -- The principle of non-refoulement -- The Committee Against Torture -- The European Convention on Human Rights -- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- Detention of asylum seekers -- The legality of the detention of asylum seekers under the European Convention on Human Rights -- Judicial control of the legality of the detention under the European Convention -- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- The right to family life -- The European Convention on Human Rights -- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child -- The right to effective remedy -- The European Convention on Human Rights -- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 5 Rethinking the refugee concept -- The refugee as a moving entity -- The history of asylum and the social production of space -- The general concept of refugee -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 6 Taking the 'political' out of asylum: the legal containment of refugees' political activism -- Introduction -- Historical dimensions -- Patterns of domination -- The legal options -- Good behaviour clauses -- National security expulsions.

Political and non-political offences -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 7 Refugee definitions in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States -- Population displacement in the countries of the CIS -- Refugees -- Internally displaced persons -- Involuntarily relocating persons -- Repatriants -- Formerly deported peoples -- Ecological migrants -- Labour migrants -- Transit migrants -- CIS attempts to conceptualise these flows -- The categorisation exercise as part of the CIS Conference -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Part 2 The developing role of the UNHCR -- 8 The role of UNHCR in the development of international refugee law -- Introduction -- UNHCR's mandate, including its personal scope of competence -- The legal basis of the UNHCR Statute -- UNHCR's competence ratione personae -- Refugees and asylum seekers -- Stateless persons -- Returnees -- The internally displaced -- Persons threatened with displacement or otherwise at risk -- UNHCR as a 'promoter' of international law and standards -- Legal basis -- Historical overview -- The 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees -- The 1967 UN Declaration on Territorial Asylum and subsequent developments -- The Executive Committee -- Development of further measures to ensure international protection to all who need it -- Regional developments -- Other international instruments and areas of law -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 9 UNHCR as leader in humanitarian assistance: a triumph of politics over law? -- Evolution of the lead agency concept as the answer to co-ordination -- Alternatives to lead agency designation -- The choice of UNHCR -- Politicisation -- Donor pressures -- Humanitarian action as a substitute for political resolve -- Co-ordination or control -- UNHCR and ethnic cleansing -- Relations with the military -- Peace-building with people -- Sanctions -- Conclusion.

Bibliography -- 10 In-country protection: out of bounds for UNHCR? -- Mandate -- Motivations -- Protection in practice -- Defining the boundaries -- Bibliography -- 11 Refugee identity and protection's fading prospect -- Introduction: the legal, institutional and political premises of the regime of international protection -- International protection and UNHCR -- 1991-1997: substituting 'humanitarian action' for the duty to provide international protection -- Former Yugoslavia -- Rwanda and the Great Lakes -- The 'humanitarian agenda' and United Nations reform -- Management for protection -- Internal organisation -- Institutional weaknesses reviewed -- Mandates and structures, principles and responsibility -- Conclusions -- Lessons learned -- Future prospects -- Bibliography -- Part 3 State responses and individual rights -- 12 The refugee state and state protection -- Introduction -- Refugees and the refugee condition -- The refugee condition and the state -- Refugees and protection -- Refugee protection and the state -- Bibliography -- 13 Non-admission policies and the right to protection: refugees' choice versus states' exclusion? -- Non-admission and non-arrival -- Mechanisms reducing refugees' choices -- Exclusion from refugee status -- Exclusion from the granting of asylum -- Exclusion from asylum procedures -- State obligations and the individual right to protection -- A right under the Convention to choose the country of asylum? -- International standards for protection in the 'country of asylum' -- Various approaches to the question of refugees' choice -- Concluding remarks: choice versus protection -- Bibliography -- 14 Early warning and prevention: the United Nations and Rwanda -- Introduction -- UN peacekeeping in Rwanda -- Early warning: the information available -- Direct observations -- Communications -- Structural problems -- Shadows.

Coincidence -- Timeliness -- Toward a comprehensive explanation for failure -- Normative factors -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Part 4 The European regime -- 15 The impetus to harmonise: asylum policy in the European Union -- Introduction -- The impetus to harmonise -- The Palma Document -- Inter-governmental co-operation -- The Dublin Convention and the shortcomings of the convention approach -- Member states' use of less-binding instruments: the London Resolutions -- Completing the structure: measures under the 'third pillar' -- The Resolution on minimum guarantees for asylum procedures -- Joint Position on the harmonised application of the definition of the term 'refugee' -- The impetus to harmonise and the Treaty of Amsterdam -- Conclusions -- Bibliography -- 16 A new asylum regime in Europe -- Parameters of the 'old' asylum regime -- Instruments and status determination -- Standard of protection in reception countries -- Institutional actors involved in debate and decision -- The new asylum regime -- Restrictions -- Non-integration -- Selective harmonisation -- A comprehensive approach -- Governmental actors -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 17 Is there a need for a European asylum policy? -- Introduction -- The state of play -- Application and implementation of the Dublin Convention -- Harmonisation of substantive asylum law -- Harmonisation of expulsion policies -- Legal examination -- Conditions for receiving applicants for asylum -- Burden-sharing -- Migration pressure -- The future -- Review of the Resolution on minimum guarantees for asylum procedures -- Treatment of rejected asylum applicants -- Financial mechanisms to assist the reception of asylum seekers -- The need for legally binding instruments -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.