Introduction:
Law of many countries treats with what and how should be done in a country. The country laws are prepared with only one motive i.e. it should be followed. Humanity is never a motive in the law following the country, but it is to maintain a lawful and restricted atmosphere even if it comes at the cost of endangering humanity. By humanity, we do not mean donating wealth amongst the population of the country but provide them with basic human rights. With humanity lacking in the laws of the many countries United Nations (UN) in 1948 adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was made with the perspective of human beings being delivered their basic human rights. By adopting UDHR, the UN moved closer to its main motive which is maintaining a peaceful and livable atmosphere in countries, and not just maintaining peace between two countries. UDHR helps the UN deal with any crisis related to the violation of basic human rights.
One of the human crisis that the world currently facing is of the refugee. We will delve into UDHR and how it deals with the situation of refugees.
Who is a Refugee?
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) defines refugees as a person who has been forced to flee his or her country.
Why Does a Person Becomes a Refugee?
A person becomes refugee not by choice but by helplessness. A refugee is a victim of a calamity or a tyranny. There is no one particular reason but there are several different reasons:
• Persecution of a Particular Ethnicity
When people in a country are persecuted on the basis of their ethnicity. Ethnicity might be divided on the basis of religion, nationality, race, political ideology, or social relations. Persecution against an ethnicity includes ethnic cleansing, genocide, etc. There lies a major difference in ethnic cleansing and genocide i.e. Genocide means the absolute killing of people of a particular ethnicity whereas ethnicity cleansing means systematic forced removal of people of a certain ethnicity.
Hitler Germany provides an example of the genocide of a particular ethnicity. The Holocaust in Germany was an event of the genocide of the whole Jewish ethnicity residing in Germany.
Myanmar government flooding Rohingyas out of the country borders to kill the existence of Rohingyas in Myanmar was an example of ethnic cleansing. It wasn’t purely ethnic cleansing because some of them fell prey to genocide but majorly were systematically removed.
• War
Countrymen are forced to leave their country when it becomes a battleground for a physical war. Due to livable conditions declining and human rights being violated the population of the country is forced to flee.
During the Cambodian war of 1975, many Cambodians flee the country the same thing happened with Afghan in the Afghanistan war of 1979.
• Gender and Sexual Orientation
LGBTIA+ community are targets of killings, sexual and gender-based violence, physical attacks, torture, arbitrary detention, accusations of immoral or deviant behaviour, denial of the rights to assembly, expression, and information, and discrimination in employment, health and education in all regions around the world, creating them a foreign body in their own country and their right to live peacefully is abruptly violated and force them to be a refugee.
• Climate Change
Climate change reasoning refugees are very few in number but in the next 80 years, a stunning 13 million coastal dwellers could be displaced by climate change, joining the teeming throngs of refugees and displaced people.
• Hunger Crisis and Famine
Due to the country’s land and its government not being able to provide the countrymen with sufficient or acceptable amounts of food. Countries of the African continent and Yemen are one of the countries facing this issue.
Laws under UDHR for Refugee
The laws of UDHR apply to every human including refugees. Laws that apply to refugee and countries dealing with refugee issues are:
• Article 03 mentions that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.
Every person possesses this right even refugees. Every person of every race, every sexual orientation, and every country. Persecutions against refugees is a violation of this right.
• Article 04 accords that no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
No country has the right to carry out any inhuman activities against the refugees.
• Article 05 mentions that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The article states that persecutors possess no right to do any inhuman activity as it is a violation of the basic rights a human possesses.
• Article 07 states equality before the law and equal protection of the law
Refugees shouldn’t be discriminated on any basis. Every human should be treated equally before the law.
• Article 09 rules that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile.
• Article 13 states that everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state and also have the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country
No one can force a person to leave a country or to stay in a country as he has the freedom of movement. No country can deny anyone residence in its country border as they also possess the right to reside within the border of any country.
• Article 14 mentions that everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution.
Every refugee has the right to seek asylum in any member country of the UN when persecuted for political reasons. The exception holding to this article is that it may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
• Article 15 states that everyone has the right to a nationality.
Every person has the right to possess a nationality of his choice and will, and no one shall deprive the person of his nationality nor deny the right to a nationality.
Every person has the right to possess a nationality of his choice and will, and no one shall deprive the person of his nationality nor deny the right to a nationality. In the 1951 Geneva convention of status of refugees it was stated that the laws of UDHR also apply to the refugees.
In the current world with UN holding a strong position in international politics, people are still deprived of their human rights and are forced to flee their country to save their lives. Afghanistan, Rwanda, Syria, Myanmar etc. are some of the modern examples. UN should make its every member country bound to it so that the bases of humanity are being strongly hold and if violated everything is returned to normal.
Conclusion:
Every human should possess human rights and no one should be deprived, and if deprived the country will be prosecuted on the basis of UDHR laws. The domain of the law was extended to refugees in 1951 Geneva convention of status of refugees. Refugees possess the right to free and peaceful life and if no country would stand for it UN made sure it would if the laws it created for them are violated. Refugees should be treated as humans and not as alien concepts or danger to one’s nation.
“Refugees are not terrorists. They are often the first victims of terrorism”
-Antonio Guterres
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