Chaloka Beyani

Human rights standards and the free movement of people within states

Introductory Treaty Standards on Freedom of Movement Within States Regulation of Movement Within States The Movement and Residence of Minorities Exclusive Movement and Residence of Indigenous People on Traditional Lands Restrictions on the Movement and Residence of Refugees Derogation of Freedom of Movement Conclusions

The needs of refugee women: a human-rights perspective.

While the issue of giving women their human rights has been firmly placed on the agendas of international conferences, the plight of refugee women has gone largely unrecognized. Refugee women face rape, sexual abuse, sexual extortion, and physical insecurity. Such violations precipitate their flight, characterize their attempts to gain refugee status, and continue during their tenure in refugee camps, where they are excluded from positions of authority. Because the definition of refugees in the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees omits sex as a grounds for determining refugee status or as a grounds on which it prohibits discrimination based on sex, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees decided in 1985 that such claims must fall under the classification of membership of a particular group. Unfortunately, agreement with this is discretionary for states. It has been argued that states which protect aliens from discrimination based on sex must afford the same privilege to refugees, but, again, such behavior is subject to debate. Concerns about the human rights of refugee women should be strengthened by being addressed in the existing framework of human rights conventions in international law, such as the Commission on the Status of Women and the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). One recent advance in this area was the establishment of the Yugoslav and Rwanda War Crimes Tribunals which will investigate the sexual abuse of women during the armed conflicts. The issue of violence against women in every situation must remain on CEDAWs agenda. In addition, the Fourth World Conference on Women provides a welcome opportunity to place these issues in the forefront of global efforts to protect women.

Recent developments: the elaboration of a legal framework for the protection of internally displaced persons in Africa

The aim of this article is to draw on contemporary developments relating to the elaboration of a binding legal framework for the treatment of internally displaced persons in Africa. By definition, internally displaced persons are “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of, or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border”.

Protection of the right to seek and obtain asylum under the African human rights system

Preface Cases Instruments 1. Introductory 1.1 Scope of the Study 1.2 Structure and Organization 2. Background 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Evolution and Trends 2.3 The Changing Climate of Refugee Protection in Africa 2.4 Solution Oriented Trends 2.5 Issues of Protection 2.6 Concluding Reflections 3. The Applicable Legal Framework 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The Duty to Protect 3.3 Human Rights and Refugee Protection 3.4 Concluding Reflections 4. The African Charter and the Protection of Refugees 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Primary Duties for States 4.3 General Guarantees 4.4 Specific Individual Rights 4.5 Freedom of Movement, the Right to Seek and Obtain Asylum, and Protection from Expulsion 4.6 Concluding Reflections 4.7 Human Dignity and the Prohibition of Torture, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment 4.8 Concluding Reflections 4.9 Fair Hearing and Due Process 4.10 Personal Liberty 4.11 Concluding Reflections 5. Access to Justice: The Right of Asylum Seekers and Refugees to Lodge Individual Complaints 5.1 Introduction: Complaints before the African Commission 5.2 Complying with the Procedure for Communications 5.3 Concluding Reflections 5.4The African Human Rights Court 6. Protection Techniques 6.1 Introduction 6.2 A Collaborative Approach 6.3 Mutuality 6.4 Concluding Reflections 7. Case Studies 7.1 Introduction 7.2 The General Case Study 7.3 Issues in the General Case Study 7.4 Other Issues that may be raised before the Commission 7.5 Jurisprudence of the African Commission Specific to the Case Study 7.6 Case Studies from Southern Africa 7.7 Case Studies from West Africa Appendices Index.