Following the passage of controversial proposals on the EURODAC database of asylum applicants' and refugees' fingerprints,Greens/EFA MEPs protest the erosion of asylum seekers' basic rights, 2013. wikicommons/Greensafe. Some rights reserved.The practice of making and granting claims of asylum based on persecution is one of the most concrete expressions of human rights. Yet after more than sixty years, the refugee regime is facing an existential threat. While Donald Trump’s latest executive order[1] has delivered the greatest blow, European states have weakened the regime by refusing to receive and resettle refugees and through their use of discriminatory policies of selection. Regrettably even liberal minded voices are undermining the human rights architecture upon which the refugee regime is based.
The 1951 Refugee Convention does not define persecution. It is a curious but historical fact that neither Article 1, which introduces the definition of a refugee, nor the term ‘persecution’ feature much in the initial analysis of the Travaux Préparatoires which detail the discussions that gave way to the Refugee Convention.[2] Rather, Paul Weis’s celebrated analysis begins with Article 2 on the general obligations of refugees. In spite of this omission, legal scholars have held that persecution connotes ‘injurious’ or ‘oppressive action’ which is informed by human rights standards in the country from which the asylum seeker has fled.
It is specifically this linkage to human rights which underpins the way claims are evaluated and which is crucial for the preservation of asylum. That is why the decision by Greece’s Supreme Court this week regarding the claims of eight Turkish officers accused of involvement in the failed Turkish coup is so very important.[3] Rather than bow to political pressure, for fear of upsetting a neighbouring NATO member state, the Court ruled that the defendants faced human rights violations if the request for extradition to Turkey was upheld. The Court’s decision unequivocally affirmed the right to seek and receive political asylum. That is why the decision by Greece’s Supreme Court this week regarding the claims of eight Turkish officers accused of involvement in the failed Turkish coup is so very important.
