II.1.4 Family unity

Main Debate

  • What is the definition of a family?

Main Points

  • Family unity as a principle
  • Right of family reunification is not included in the Geneva Convention
  • Right to respect for family life under human rights treaties

Treaties

International

  1. United Nations, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 16 December 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, Arts 17, 23.
  2. United Nations, Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3.

Soft Law

  1. Final Act of the United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons, 189 U.N.T.S. 37, 1951, Section IV. B on the Principle of the Unity of the Family.
  2. UNHCR, ‘Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees’, HCR/IP/4/Rev.1, 1979, paras. 181–188.
  3. UNHCR Executive Committee, ‘Family Reunion’, Conclusion No. 9 (XXVIII), 1977.
  4. UNHCR Executive Committee, ‘Family Reunification’, Conclusion No. 24 (XXXII), 1981.
  5. UNHCR Executive Committee, ‘Protection of the Refugee’s Family’, Conclusion No. 88 (L), 1999.
  6. UN Human Rights Committee, ‘General Comment No. 19: The Family’ (1990), UN Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.7, 12 May 2004, at 149, paras. 2, 5.

UNHCR Documents

  1. UNHCR, ‘UNHCR Guidelines on Reunification of Refugee Families’, July 1983.
  2. UNHCR, ‘Global Consultations on International Protection, Geneva Expert Round Table’, 8–9 November 2001.
  3. UNHCR, ’Refugee Family Reunification. UNHCR's Response to the European Commission Green Paper on the Right to Family Reunification of Third Country Nationals Living in the European Union (Directive 2003/86/EC)’, February 2012.
  4. UNHCR, ’Resettlement Handbook’, Revised Edition, Chapter 6.6, July 2011.

Readings

Core

  1. E. Feller, V. Türk, and F. Nicholson (eds), Refugee Protection in International Law: UNHCR’s Global Consultations on International Protection (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 555–603.
  2. K. Jastram and K. Newland, ‘Family Unity and Refugee Protection’, in E. Feller, V. Türk, and F. Nicholson (eds), Refugee Protection in International Law: UNHCR’s Global Consultations on International Protection (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

Extended

  1. A. Edwards, ‘Human Rights, Refugees, and the Right “To Enjoy” Asylum’, International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 17, no. 2 (2005), pp. 293–330.
  2. J. Vedsted-Hansen, ‘Refugees, Asylum-Seekers and Migrant Workers’, in C. Krause and M. Scheinin (eds), International Protection of Human Rights: A Textbook (Turku: Åbo Akademi University, 2nd Edition, 2012), pp. 316-320.

Editor’s Note

See Section II.3.3.4 (Convention on the Rights of the Child).

 II.1.4 Family UnityII.1.4 Family Unity

International TreatiesInternational Treaties

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1Convention on the Rights of the ChildConvention on the Rights of the ChildEmpty

UNHCR DocumentsUNHCR Documents

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1UNHCR, ‘UNHCR Guidelines on Reunification of Refugee Families’, July 1983. UNHCR, ‘UNHCR Guidelines on Reunification of Refugee Families’, July 1983. Empty
2UNHCR, ‘Global Consultations on International Protection, Geneva Expert Round Table’, 8–9 November 2001. UNHCR, ‘Global Consultations on International Protection, Geneva Expert Round Table’, 8–9 November 2001. Empty