International Journal of Refugee Law Advance Access published online on January 18, 2008
International Journal of Refugee Law, doi:10.1093/ijrl/eem069
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shadows in Paradise – Exploring Non-Refoulement as an Open Concept
Correspondence: * Jari Pirjola, LL Lic. (Helsinki), MA (Helsinki), Legal Adviser, Office for the Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland. E-mail: jari.pirjola{at}eduskunta.fi. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
The principle of non-refoulement contains a paradox. While states have committed to respecting the principle by joining the 1951 Refugee Convention and key human rights conventions, its content is not established in international law. In other words, states have committed to a principle the content of which is indeterminate. Since no common definition exists, in practice, national and international bodies have extensive powers of discretion to give content to the terms ‘persecution’, ‘torture’, ‘degrading’ or ‘cruel’ treatment. The purpose of this article is to explore non-refoulement as an open and ambiguous concept. Acknowledgement of the indeterminacy is important, as open concepts never remain such in practice but are always issued with content or interpreted. This approach calls for a further question: how do interpretations come about and what kind of factors influence them? The conclusion of the article is that different national and international actors promote their own ‘correct’ interpretations of this keystone of refugee protection.