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Social and economic rights of refugees under international legal framework: An appraisal

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Indian Journal of International Law

Abstract

The primary obligations to respect, protect, and ensure the enjoyment of human rights of refugees under international convention rests with the states by passing suitable domestic legislation or otherwise. Likewise for the social and economic rights of the refugees. Being in a foreign country, refugees are most vulnerable to the deprivation of minimum subsistence rights like right to work, education, housing, as well as physical and mental health. Since flight to safety cannot always be planned and majority of them do not have any valuable possessions, refugees are often dependent upon host country for their survival needs. Failure of the state to guarantee adequate social and economic conditions to refugees may result in violation of their right to life and the prohibition of discrimination amongst various refugees. A deprivation of social and economic rights to refugees, insofar as it forestalls them from realizing an adequate standard of living, arguably, amounts to indirect refoulement. Such a denial of basic survival rights is most likely to force the refugees to return to their country of origin where they maybe continued danger of being persecuted.

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Notes

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  10. Brian Orend, Human Rights: Concept and Context (Broadview Press, Peterborough, 2002) 31.

  11. First generation rights refers to civil and political rights whereas second generation rights refers to economic, social and cultural rights.

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  15. Ibid.

  16. H. Steiner, P. Alston and R. Goodman, International Human Rights Law in Context: Law, Politics, Morals (OUP, NY, 2007) 272.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Id at p. 267.

  19. D. Kelly, A Life of One´s Own: Individual Rights and the Welfare State, ibid, 257.

  20. Ibid.

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  22. Ibid.

  23. E Riedel, G Giacca, & C Golay (eds) Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: Contemporary Issues and Challenges (OUP, Oxford, 2014) 6.

  24. Article 55 (a), (b) and (c) of UDHR.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Karin KjellinSocio-Economic Rights What Relevance in an Era of Globalization? Master Thesis International Law Department of Law Stockholm University November 2007, available at:http://www.juridicum.su.se/juruppsatser/2007/ht_2010_Karin_Kjellin.pdf (Visited on December 5, 2015).

  27. Traditionally, there are three recognised durable solutions i.e. voluntary repatriation, local integration and resettlement in a third country.

  28. U C Jha, Refugees Right to Work: An Indian Perspective, ISIL Yrbk International Humanitarian & Refugee L (2003) 196.

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  31. Jha, supra note 28 at 196.

  32. Ibid.

  33. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights General comment No. 23 (2016) on the right to just

    And favourable conditions of work (article 7 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights).

  34. S Bhattachrjee, Situating the Right to Work in International Human Rights Law: An Agenda for the Protection of Refugees and Asylum—seekers, NUJS L Rev (2013) 6.

  35. The Michigan Guidelines on the Right to Work, 31 Michigan J International L (2010) 293.

  36. Ibid.

  37. B.S. Chimni, Globalisation, Humanitarianism and the Erosion of Refugee Protection, 13(3) J Refugee Stud (2000) 243.

  38. Bhattachrjee, Supra note 34 at 42.

  39. Edwards, supra note 30 at 294.

  40. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 13: The right to education

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  43. Ibid.

  44. Ibid.

  45. Ibid.

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  53. Committee on ESC, General Comment No. 19 on The Right to Social Security, Para 31, available at:http://www.refworld.org/docid/47b17b5b39c.html (Visited on February 17, 2012).

  54. Committee on ESC, 5th Session, 1991, General Comment No. 3 on the Nature of States Parties’ Obligations (Art. 2(1)), UN Doc. E/1991/23, Para. 1.

  55. M. Craven, The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Perspective on its Development (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995) 170,173–174.

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  57. Limburg Principles on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Limburg Principles, para. 43.

  58. Charlotte Edmond 84% of refugees live in developing countries https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/06/eighty-four-percent-of-refugees-live-in-developing-countries/.

  59. The Limburg Principles state that Article 2(3) should apply strictly to those formerly colonized states that fall within the appropriate UN classification of developing countries. See Limburg Principles para. 44.

  60. ICESCR Article 4.

  61. Refugees And ESC Rights, available at:https://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/IHRIP/circle/modules/module7.htm (Visited on March 5, 2016).

  62. Ibid.

  63. UNHCR, Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, 1992, available at:www.unhcr.org/3d58e13b4.htm (Visited on March 10, 2016).

  64. JC Hathaway The Rights of Refugees under International law (CUP Cambridge, 2005) 992.

  65. Article 35(1) of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

  66. Hathaway, supra note 64 at 992.

  67. Id at 993.

  68. Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights , available at:http://hrbaportal.org/insights/optional-protocol-to-the-international-covenant-on-economic-social-cultural-rights#sthash.C0HbchJ7.dpuf (Visited on March 11, 2016).

  69. Colin Harvey, Time for Reform? Refugees, Asylum-seekers, and Protection Under International

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    (2007).

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  1. Amity Law School, Amity University, Noida, India

    Ruchi Lal

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Lal, R. Social and economic rights of refugees under international legal framework: An appraisal. Indian Journal of International Law 58, 467–488 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40901-019-00104-w

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