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Elixir Journal 53524 Anteneh Geremew Gemeda/ Elixir Law 133 (2019) 53524-53528 Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal) Law Elixir Law 133 (2019) 53524-53528 Essentials of the Right to Voluntary Return: The Case of Refugees Anteneh Geremew Gemeda Lecturer, School of Law, Debre Markos University, Ethiopia. ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Voluntary return is the assisted or independent return to the country of origin, transit or Received: 6 June 2019; another third country based on the free will of the returnee. Voluntary return is informed Received in revised form: and unforced return of a refugee to his country of origin. Therefore, this paper is intended 7 August 2019; to deal the concept of voluntary return as a product of two main components: The right to Accepted: 17 August 2019; return and the right not to be forced to return. The latter is concerned with voluntariness of repatriation. There are various pulling and pushing factors which instigate the return Keywords of refugees to their country of origin. The return of refugees and asylum seekers may be Voluntary Return, classified as voluntary repatriation, mandatory return of rejected asylum seekers who are Refugees, required by law to leave, and forced return of rejected asylum seekers. It is dealt that UNHCR, voluntariness of returning to home country is an essential right of refugees. Non-refoulnement. © 2019 Elixir All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Refugees should be provided with complete, objective, up- It is the risk of human rights violations in their home to-date and accurate information, on physical, material and country which compels refugees to cross international borders legal safety issues regarding their former homes, lands or and seek protection abroad. However, various pulling and places where they used to live. They should be able to pushing factors instigate the return of refugees to their live in their homes again free from fear. The right to country of origin. Particularly, if conditions have return is not restricted by the passing of time and cannot be fundamentally changed in the country of origin promoting limited to a certain period of time. and monitoring the safety of their voluntary return allows For long the United Nations Higher Commissioner on refugees to re-establish themselves in their own community Refugees (UNHCR), a non-partisan, non-political and to enjoy their basic human rights. humanitarian organization responsible for the implementation The return of refugees and asylum seekers may of the 1951 Refugee Convention, consistently refused to encompass voluntary repatriation, mandatory return of accept the human right to return as the starting point for a rejected asylum seekers who are required by law to leave, and consideration of voluntary repatriation. However, since forced return of rejected asylum seekers. Definition of 1980‟s the focus of international attention is mainly on voluntary repatriation used by the European Council on voluntary repatriation and prevention of the mass exodus of Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), recommends that „„voluntary refugees and the linkage between the two has been asserted in repatriation shall be used to describe the return of Convention the international debates on the refugee problem. Thus the refugees, other persons with a complementary or temporary recent trend is towards facilitating the voluntary repatriation protection status, or persons still in the asylum procedure who of the refugees by involving both the country of refuge and freely choose to exercise their right to return to their country the country of origin and also the UNHCR. of origin or habitual residence‟. According to International 2. The Right to Return Organization of Migration (IOM), voluntary return is the The human right to return has been included in a number assisted or independent return to the country of origin, transit of universal and regional instruments. It has been advocated or another third country based on the free will of the returnee. that the human right to return forms part of customary The definition used by ECRE differs from the one used by the international law. For most individuals the actual practice of IOM, which uses the concept of voluntary repatriation to returning to one‟s home or country is so commonplace a part cover a much wider group encompassing refugees, asylum of everyday living that the right of return as a legal concept is seekers and rejected asylum seekers. For the purpose of this given little attention. The great majority of people in the paper, voluntary return is informed and unforced return of a world are able to exercise the customary right of return based refugee to his country of origin. upon state practice. Therefore, this paper is intended to deal the concept of The right to return is considered part of the right to voluntary return as a product of two main components: The freedom of movement. A general right to free movement can right to return and the right not to be forced to return. The be traced back to 16th century publicists of international law latter is concerned with voluntariness of repatriation. who had upheld this right. The Spaniard Francisco de Vitoria Voluntary repatriation is when the choice to return is said: “it was permissible from the beginning of the world for made without any pressure from any outside source and anyone to set forth and travel wheresoever he would”. where there is access to accurate information on the It is said to be particular in that “unlike many other circumstances and conditions that refugees are returning to. human rights and freedoms, its exercise does not produce Tele: E-mail address: [email protected] © 2019 Elixir All rights reserved 53525 Anteneh Geremew Gemeda/ Elixir Law 133 (2019) 53524-53528 effects only within a single State, but often affects at least two [ICCPR] and should be, in any event, reasonable in the communities, that of the country to be left and that of the particular circumstances. The Committee considers that there State to which ingress is sought”. are few, if any, circumstances in which deprivation of the While the rights to leave and return are closely right to enter one‟s own country could be reasonable. A Sate connected, in that the existence of one allows for the effective party must not, by stripping a person of nationality or by exercise of the other, they respectively respond to different expelling an individual to a third country, arbitrarily prevent needs of the individuals exercising them. The person leaving this person from returning to his or her own country. his or her country may be doing so out of a desire to travel, to In terms of the right to return, the Human Rights emigrate, or to seek refuge. The person seeking to return to Committee has also given authoritative interpretation to the his or her country is usually motivated by a desire to return meaning of the phrase „own country.‟ The Committee states home, to the place where he or she belongs, to his or her that the right applies even in relation to disputed territories, or roots. territories that have changed hands. In paragraph 20 of This „natural desire for a base or homeland‟ has been General Comment 27, the Human Rights Committee said to demonstrate „the logical connection‟ of freedom of determined that: movement with the right to a nationality, and in this sense The scope of „his own country‟ is broader than the the right to return is closely connected with the legal concept concept „country of his nationality‟. It is not limited to of nationality. Besides, the right to return can be closely nationality in a formal sense, that is, nationality acquired at linked with other human rights, such as the right to property, birth or by conferral; it embraces, at the very least, an the right to privacy and the right of admission for nationals. individual who, because of his or her special ties to or claims The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by in relation to a given country, cannot be considered to be a the UN General Assembly in 1948, is the foundation of the mere alien. This would be the case, for example, of nationals right to return in human rights law. Article 13 of the of a country who have been stripped of their nationality in Universal Declaration phrases the right to return broadly and violation of international law, and of individuals whose simply, as follows: Everyone has the right to leave any country of nationality has been incorporated in or transferred country, including his own, and to return to his country. This to another national entity, whose nationality is being denied provision recognizes the inherent relationship between a them. person and his country and is termed in unconditional Various specialized universal instruments adopted under wording. The exercise of the right, like others in the the auspices of the UN specify the provision of the Covenant Universal Declaration, is only subject under Article 29 to in different contexts. The Convention on Elimination of “such limitations as are determined by law solely for the Racial Discrimination (CERD) guarantees a right „to return to purpose of seeking due recognition and respect for the right one‟s country‟ as an aspect of a State‟s obligation to avoid of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, racial discrimination; thus a State is forbidden to deny entry public order and the general welfare in a democratic society”. to a national on racial or ethnic grounds. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 3. The Case of Refugees the instrument that was meant to give conventional binding Refugees need to be guaranteed the right to return force to many of the rights proclaimed in the Universal voluntarily and in safety to their countries of origin or Declaration, incorporates the right to return, stating in Article nationality.
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