Public International Law (UPES)

LARGE GROUP 11
Student Guide

Relationship between State and Individual under International Law: Asylum (3)

Introduction

Outcomes

By the end of this Large Group you should be able to understand the:

 Meaning and definition of asylum;

 Difference between territorial asylum and extra-territorial asylum;
 The relationship between asylum and extradition.

1 What is asylum?
Origins

Refugees

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was created in 1950

The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 (the 1951 Convention)

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-Article 1 of the 1951 Convention:

“[O]wing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,

nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is
outside the country of [their] nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is
unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country; or who, not
having a nationality and being outside the country of [their] former habitual
residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is
unwilling to return to it”1.

The Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees 1967 (the 1967 Protocol)

The difference between refugees, asylum seekers and migrants

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuj-0RL0qLo

Asylum Seekers

“[A]sylum seekers are individuals who have sought international protection and
whose claims for refugee status have not yet been determined”2.

Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948

1
The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951; https://www.unhcr.org/media/convention-and-
protocol-relating-status-refugees
2
UNHCR, 2009 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless
Persons, Division of
Programme Support and Management, 15 June 2010, p.2, available at <http://www.unhcr.org/4c11f0be9.html>
p.23.

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What do you think are the top 5 countries that house the highest number of
refugees?

The challenges faced by refugees

Migrants

2 Non-refoulement

Article 33 (1) of the 1951 Convention:

“No Contracting State shall expel or return a refugee in any manner

whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where [their] life or freedom would be
threatened on account of [their] race, religion, nationality, membership of a
particular social group or political opinion”3.

R (on the application of AAA (Syria) and others) v Secretary of State for the
Home Department [2023] UKSC 424

3
https://www.unhcr.org/uk/about-unhcr/who-we-are/1951-refugee-convention
4
https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2023-0093.html

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3 Differences between territorial and extra-territorial asylum
Territorial asylum

Edward Snowden

Extra-territorial (or ‘diplomatic’ asylum)

Julian Assange

Is it a universally accepted concept?

4 The relationship between asylum and extradition

5 Conclusion

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