ABSTRACT
The problem regarding the status of the refugees from the
Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL), this work is not the
first to discuss the problem regarding the deplorable situation of human rights
because it is well known, it is only considered as another reminder for the
decision makers of the region and their partners to be kind to someone like
them, «a refugee».
The refugees from these three countries have a certain
particularity as compared to other exiled people from elsewhere, their
situation has been an agony, a big human tragedy resulting from the
interference of incomparable conflict situations of their original countries
with those of their host countries, and one would wonder if there is some hope
that this violent situation would be only limited to the sub region. Ethnic
crisis, armed conflicts, crimes against humanity, abuse of rights, the culture
of impunity on part of regimes in power, indescribable wars, all these threats
make nationals flee and seek refuge in other countries. As a result, some are
repatriated by force after their property is taken away, others are mistreated,
tortured, massacred, disappear, as well as many other consequences.
Various international, regional, and even national instruments
define a refugee as a vulnerable person demanding international protection that
his/her situation requires. The 1951 Geneva Convention, its additional protocol
of 1967, and the Organization for African Unity (OAU) Convention of 1969 make a
refugee subject to the international law whose application field is limited in
« ratione materiae » and « ratione personae
». Countries and the High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) which adopt
those conventions become the main actors.
After ratifying those international and regional instruments,
states promulgate and publish relating laws, and hence, commit to hosting,
recognizing refugees, and become subject to the state's jurisdiction, which
therefore gives refugees legal existence. They become subject to the
international law in the host country. Despite a refugee is amenable to a court
in the host country, the problem of citizenship and security policy shows
inequality between a citizen and a refugee as per the same rights which leads
to the violation of the refugee's fundamental rights.
Faced with that delicate problem of a weakened refugee, legal
guarantee on the one hand, political and legal vulnerability on the other hand,
the legal analysis we are going to conduct will help figure out the
intersection point of the status of refugee made « full » and «
empty » and the application of the norm to the national law according to
the context of the great lakes region. The comparative analysis of France and
Canada, countries of immigration and asylum land and the 3 country members of
CEPGL will help us point out steps forward as regards protection of human
rights and particularly refugee rights.
This status is a dynamic process in that it continues and
conserves a big potential of protection, although much more part of weakening
and reject, because a refugee is at the same time protected by the human
rights, « the refugee » weakened by the refugee rights, «the
other»
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excluded by the immigration and security management. For a
better guarantee of the international refugee protection, the 1951 Convention
remains the main established and dynamic reference tool. However, internal and
international human rights enlarge and or apply it; the same internal and
supranational impoverish and exclude it, reason for its adaptation for full
refugee protection.
Respect of state obligations based on the principle
« Pacta Sunt Servanda » according to
jus cogens regarding the right to no turning back and reinforcing both
legal and institutional guarantees which will allow effective protection for
the refugees from CEPGL. Moreover, correlation between rule of law and
democracy always result in human respect and dignity, and specifically
refugee?s respect and dignity, and the other way round engender autoritarism,
dictatorship, oligarchy, sworn enemies of human rights, and regimes in power
are the source of all those threats that HCR was unable to deal with.
Adequate education on universal human rights may make citizens
be free from all the above mentioned threats to the refugee rights, and work
for the region development.
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