Common European Asylum System in a Changing World

1. PILLARS OF HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION IN EU ASYLUM LAW 1.1 International instruments Encyclopedia Britanica online: Asylum, in international law, the protection granted by a state to a foreign citizen against his own state. The person for whom asylum is established has no legal right to demand it, and the sheltering state has no obligation to grant it. … https://www.britannica.com/search?query=asylum+ States have been granting protection to individuals and groups fleeing from persecution for centuries; however, modern refugee law is mostly a phenomenon of the second half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, like international human rights law, modern refugee law has its origins in the atmosphere of the aftermath of World War II as well as the refugee crises of the interwar years that preceded it. In response to the horrors of war and with the effort to prevent them many international humanitarian treaties were concluded, most of these modern human law instruments of universal or regional character reflect the concept of international protection of refugees. Fundamentally, it is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 14 UDHR 1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. 2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non- political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. Article 14(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was adopted in 1948, guarantees the right to seek and enjoy asylum in other countries. Subsequent regional human rights instruments have elaborated on this right, guaranteeing the “right to seek and be granted asylum in a foreign territory, in accordance with the legislation of the state and international conventions.” It is one of the outstanding achievements of the twentieth century in the humanitarian field that the refugee problem is perceived as a matter of concern to the international community which must be addressed in the context of international cooperation and burden-sharing. We can mention at least some of those international treaties: Universal and regional legal instruments relating to refugees: • 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees • 1967 Optional Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees • American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man (Article 27) • American Convention on Human Rights (Article 22) • Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, Colloquium on the International Protection of Refugees in Central America, Mexico and Panama (Cartagena Declaration)

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