Tracking the evolution of the norm of refugee protection

Herfurth, Margaretha

Tracking the evolution of the norm of refugee protection

Master Thesis

2012

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Political Studies

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees not only, it is argued in this paper, established the international refugee regime with a strong relation to human rights, but also laid the groundwork for the establishment of a norm of refugee protection as a standard of appropriate behaviour toward refugees. The paper aims to prove this first assertion by employing the Constructivist-based norm life-cycle theoretical framework advanced by Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink. This paper will show that a norm of refugee protection was established over time but that its tenets have increasingly been ignored by states thereby eroding the initial norm of refugee protection. ... The second assertion with which this paper is faced therefore is that the intensity of the erosion of this norm of refugee protection is such that its continued existence is questionable.

Description

Includes abstract.

Keywords

Political Studies

Reference:

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