The Politics of Refugee Protection |
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| Authors: | Goodwin-Gill Guy S. |
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| Affiliation: | * The author is a Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, Professor of International Refugee Law at Oxford and former Rubin Director of Research, Institute of European Studies (1998–2002). Earlier in his career, he served in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), principally as a Legal Adviser, in various countries from 1976 to 1988. He is the Founding Editor of the International Journal of Refugee Law and the author of The Refugee in International Law (3rd edition with Dr Jane McAdam, 2007). He is also a Barrister at Blackstone Chambers, London. |
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| Abstract: | This article looks back to the 1920s, and tries to tease outthe politics of refugee protection as it evolved in the practiceof States and international organizations in a period of growingideological divide. The question addressed is whether the politicsof protection at any particular moment are humanitarian or whetherthey serve primarily other purposes, in which the refugee ismerely instrumental. It is unrealistic to imagine that the problemof refugees can ever be entirely non-political. What the historyof the 1920–55 period confirms is the continued vitalityof self-interest as a motivating factor in the responses ofStates to refugee flows. The international refugee regime thatemerged in the late 1940s and early 1950s defined refugees throughthe politics of denunciation in a persecution-oriented definitionthat continues to limit and confuse, not only at the internationaloperations level, but also in national asylum procedures. Inthis context, the article concludes that the art for UNHCR isnot to allow solutions or assistance to have priority over protection.For if it cannot provide protection, it will be judged a failureand accountable, and not merely excused because it tried hardin difficult political circumstances. |
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