Reconfiguring the concept of asylum

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Abstract

There is much careless talk in forced migration studies and elsewhere about a ‘right of asylum’. Usually this is framed in terms of its supposed grounding in international refugee law. As a result it is commonly assumed that this legal regime, underpinned by the 1951 Refugee Convention, and supplemented by the quasi-customary principle of non-refoulement and various human rights treaties, represents the sine qua non of protection for forced migrants today. But there is certainly no
mention of a right of asylum in the 1951 Convention or any current regional legal instruments. During the drafting process of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights states insisted on changing the original draft of Article 14,which referred to a right to be ‘granted’ asylum, and was changed to the mere right to ‘seek and enjoy’ it. Indeed, I would argue, how could it be otherwise in a system of international law underpinned by the fundamental principle of State sovereignty?

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