The principle of non-refoulement in the context of refugee operation in Tanzania
type: CreativeWork
description: "The rights of refugees and basic human rights are inextricably linked. Today's human rights abuse is tomorrow's refugee movements. Quite often, refugees' rights are curtailed by the same states that declare them in accordance with international and domestic instruments, only because they are non-nationals. While the foundation of refugee rights is the principle that all men and women have the right to belong to a society in which they are protected by the state, the respect to the principle of non-refoulement is at the core of being a refugee. Even though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) proclaims rights to all, including refugees, states use international principles of sovereignty to shut their doors in front of asylum seekers. Furthermore, it is not easy to utilise international mechanisms of protection to instigate complaints against a potential host state, based on its arbitrary act to shut its doors. This is because one needs to seek remedies before authorities of the same country where she or he has been denied. In addition, international law has few precedents on the matter even assuming it was treated as an exception to the former rule. This situation puts refoulement victims in a dilemma. ... Since the first time when the wave of asylum seekers from Rwanda hit Tanzania in 1959, the flow of refugees continues. Tanzania has hosted refugees not only from its neighbouring countries, but also as far as from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Somalia. With an estimated number of 602,00 refugees population in 2004, Tanzania was among the top five refugee-hosting countries in the world. Tanzania ratified the international and regional refugee instrumetns, as well as other human rights instruments that may enhance the protection of refugees. Subsequently, Tanzania enacted appropriate legislation in order to make the refugee instruments enforceable within the national legal framework. The principle of non-refoulement is enshriend in all legal instruments of …
abstract: "The rights of refugees and basic human rights are inextricably linked. Today's human rights abuse is tomorrow's refugee movements. Quite often, refugees' rights are curtailed by the same states that declare them in accordance with international and domestic instruments, only because they are non-nationals. While the foundation of refugee rights is the principle that all men and women have the right to belong to a society in which they are protected by the state, the respect to the principle of non-refoulement is at the core of being a refugee. Even though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) proclaims rights to all, including refugees, states use international principles of sovereignty to shut their doors in front of asylum seekers. Furthermore, it is not easy to utilise international mechanisms of protection to instigate complaints against a potential host state, based on its arbitrary act to shut its doors. This is because one needs to seek remedies before authorities of the same country where she or he has been denied. In addition, international law has few precedents on the matter even assuming it was treated as an exception to the former rule. This situation puts refoulement victims in a dilemma. ... Since the first time when the wave of asylum seekers from Rwanda hit Tanzania in 1959, the flow of refugees continues. Tanzania has hosted refugees not only from its neighbouring countries, but also as far as from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Somalia. With an estimated number of 602,00 refugees population in 2004, Tanzania was among the top five refugee-hosting countries in the world. Tanzania ratified the international and regional refugee instrumetns, as well as other human rights instruments that may enhance the protection of refugees. Subsequently, Tanzania enacted appropriate legislation in order to make the refugee instruments enforceable within the national legal framework. The principle of non-refoulement is enshriend in all legal instruments of …
language: en
keywords: UCTD, Refugees, Asylum seekers, Human rights, Principle of non-refoulement, Right to non-refoulement, Tanzania
date published: 2005
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:52:37Z
provider: University of Pretoria
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Pretoria

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/1140