Main Debates
- Is temporary protection on the basis of group assessment of protection need an adequate alternative to individualized examination of refugee status?
- Are there legally binding norms for temporary protection or is it a matter of discretionary state practice?
- What should be the duration of temporary protection?
- What level of rights must be accorded to those granted temporary protection?
Main Points
- Temporary protection as an administrative measure until individual examination is carried out or group recognition occurs
- Temporary protection is a precursor, not an alternative, to 1951 Geneva Convention protection
- Temporary protection does not suspend states’ duties under the 1951 Geneva Convention and other human rights treaties
Soft Law
- UNHCR, Executive Committee, ‘Protection of Asylum-Seekers in Situations of Large-Scale Influx’, Conclusion No. 22 (XXXII), 1981.
- UNHCR, Executive Committee, ‘General Conclusion on International Protection’, Conclusion No. 74 (XLV), 1994, sections (r)-(u).
- UNHCR, Executive Committee, ‘Conclusion on the Provision on International Protection Including Through Complementary Forms of Protection’, Conclusion No. 103 ((LVI), 2005, section (l).
UNHCR Documents
- UNHCR, ’Guidelines on Temporary Protection or Stay Arrangements’, February 2014.
- UNHCR, ’Roundtable on Temporary Protection’, Summary Conclusions, International Institute of Humanitarian Law, San Remo, Italy, 19-20 July 2012, reproduced in International Journal of Refugee Law, Vol.25, No.1 (2013), pp.178-186.
- UNHCR, ’Note on International Protection’, UN doc. A/AC.96/830, 7 September 1994, paras. 45–51.
Readings
Core
- G. Goodwin-Gill and J. McAdam, The Refugee in International Law, 3rd edn, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 340–342. [G. Goodwin-Gill, The Refugee in International Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 196–202.]
Extended
- M. Albert, ‘Governance and Prima Facie Refugee Status Determination: Clarifying the Boundaries of Temporary Protection, Group Determination, and Mass Influx’, Refugee Survey Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 1 (2010), pp. 61–91.
- J. Fitzpatrick, ‘Temporary Protection of Refugees: Elements of a Formalized Regime’, American Journal of International Law, vol. 94, no. 2 (April 2000), pp. 279–306.
- J-F. Durieux and A. Hurwitz, ’How Many Is Too Many? African and European Legal Responses to Mass Influxes of Refugees’, German Yearbook of International Law Vol. 47 (2004), pp.105-159.
- A. Edwards ‘Temporary Protection, Derogation and the 1951 Refugee Convention’ Melbourne Journal of International Law, vol. 13, no.2 (2012), pp. 595-635.