The interaction and co-action of refugee law and human rights law : the protection of North Korean escapees under international law

• Main Author: Cho, Jung-hyun
• Published: University of Edinburgh 2008
• Subjects: 340
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.642821

Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans have escaped from their home country since the mid-1990s. Although it is a Party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, China, the main host country receiving escapees, has constantly denied their refugee status without any proper procedures and sent all of the North Korean Escapees (NKEs) back to the high probability of torture and even execution. The application of international refugee law to the NKE case has been tried, mainly focusing on the refugee status of NKEs together with the principle of <i>non</i>-<i>refoulement</i>. However, their status as Convention or political refugee is seriously challenged by the main host country, and this requires us to consider – while developing stronger arguments under refugee law, e.g. ‘Republikflucht’ – additional forms of protection that may be available under other areas of international law. Given that human rights law can apply to any persons irrespective of their legal status such as refugees or illegal immigrants, it seems to be a promising alternative to refugee law. In this context, the contents of human rights treaties to which China is a Party need to be carefully examined: among others the 1984 Convention against Torture. This thesis breaks new ground in offering a systematic examination of the rights of asylum-seekers not only under refugee law but also under human rights law and other areas of international law. Part one deals with refugee law issues such as political refugees and NKEs (Ch. II), humanitarian refugees and NKEs (Ch. III) and protection measures under refugee law (Ch. IV). Part Two discusses human rights applicable to NKEs based on international human rights law (Ch. V) and the protection mechanisms available to NKEs under this area of law (Ch. VI). Taking into account the positive ‘interaction’ between international refugee law and human rights law, the ‘co-action’ of both laws should be pursued and supported for the protection of the desperate NKEs.