Is International Law Capable of Addressing Refugee Crises?

Abstract

In this essay, the author intends to determine whether international law is endowed with the right tools to properly handle, in general, refugee situations. I will use the continuing Syrian crisis to ground over concerns and gauge whether, as some post, international law wants asylum seekers to seek shelter in a country that is other than their State of nationality. In responding to the question, I shall divide it into four segments. In the first part, I will define a refugee and explain what rights a ''refugee'' has under the law. In Part 2, the obligations devolving on treaty-making States under international law will be analyzed. In Part 3, the place that international law has played in establishing and/or strengthening refugee rights protection and potential avenues for improvement where applicable will be evaluated. In the last section of this work, in Part 4, I will analyze many proposed upgrades and explain why they cannot be accomplished. Still, this article will only examine whether asylum seekers have any fundamental rights that may be asserted to protect them against States at the international or regional level. As for extensive coverage of this article, it is worth noting that issues of crisis management in domestic environments are not raised in it, as well as cases when, according to the norms of international law, States are legally obligated to undertake practical actions, including operational actions by military forces in direct protection of citizens and their property. Indeed, the term ''manage is quite broad in its meaning. This article will discuss specifically (a) whether international law offers any measure of protection to refugees fleeing their countries, (b) whether international law creates a legal right for States to offer asylum to refugees, and (c) whether data available that international law can indeed protect refugees, where there are cases where asylum seekers managed to get municipal or international legal protection. As to the three questions, I suggest that all should be answered positively; consequently, one can safely deduce that international law can manage refugee crises, present and future. The lack of capacity to deal with the chaos that the asylum seekers from Syria have been subjected to

probably due to lack of systematic protection, calls for change and points to the fact that the existing international legal regime is not capable of solving the refugee problems. It is high time to explain the definitions of some crucial notions. International law comprises CIL and the international treaty obligation, primarily arising from the United Nations Conventions. I use the term ''refugee'' in a strictly legal meaning – those who fit the definition of the International Humanitarian Law, and ''asylum seeker'' will mean all the individuals for whom the question of recognition remains open. One needs to appreciate that while there is a lot of intersection between IR law and IHRL, the two are entirely different legal regimes; hence, this article is not solely a discussion of the former. The protection of asylum seekers under international human rights law will also be assessed, as well as the ability of the international legal system to provide grave remedial options for refugee conditions. This article will also consider relevant regional legal frameworks, such as those of the EU and AU.