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Is South African Refugee Law creating a stateless generation?
Despite an international framework guaranteeing fundamental rights to all those who belong to the human family, nationality if often a prerequisite to accessing these rights and thus, a lack of nationality, or statelessness, often carries dire consequences. Furthermore, regardless of international,...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Public Law
2020
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| _version_ | 1867611340067045376 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Lee, Megan Catherine |
| author2 | Barratt, Amanda |
| author_browse | Barratt, Amanda Lee, Megan Catherine |
| author_facet | Barratt, Amanda Lee, Megan Catherine |
| author_sort | Lee, Megan Catherine |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Despite an international framework guaranteeing fundamental rights to all those who belong to the human family, nationality if often a prerequisite to accessing these rights and thus, a lack of nationality, or statelessness, often carries dire consequences. Furthermore, regardless of international, regional and domestic laws protecting the right to a nationality, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 10 million persons are stateless worldwide. In addition to not being able to vote or run for public office, stateless persons are often unable to access other fundamental rights, such as the right to education, housing or health care. Stateless persons are also vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and human trafficking. Furthermore, despite their close connection in history, the protection of stateless persons has, for decades, taken a backseat to that of refugees and asylum seekers. As a result, stateless persons are often forced to rely on the safeguards provided by the mechanisms designed to protect refugees and asylum seekers and, while these may be able to alleviate some of the consequences of statelessness, they will never be able to provide an absolute solution to statelessness – i.e. the granting of nationality. This reliance on the asylum system is evident in South Africa, where no specific laws or procedures protecting stateless persons exist. In examining the refugee law in South Africa, the manner in which these laws are implemented, as well as other legislation relevant to the protection of stateless persons, it is evident that the South African government’s policy decisions relating to the asylum system are aiming to shrink the asylum protection space in South Africa and are inadvertently leading to situations of both de jure and de facto statelessness. In addition, the conduct of the DHA is placing large groups at risk of statelessness and leaving vulnerable groups with little to no legal remedies. In a State which hosts an estimated 10 000 stateless persons, these policy decisions and implementation practices urgently need to be addressed in order to resolve existing situations of statelessness as well as to prevent future statelessness. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/30936 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | Department of Public Law |
| publisherStr | Department of Public Law |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/30936 Is South African Refugee Law creating a stateless generation? Lee, Megan Catherine Barratt, Amanda Human Rights Law Despite an international framework guaranteeing fundamental rights to all those who belong to the human family, nationality if often a prerequisite to accessing these rights and thus, a lack of nationality, or statelessness, often carries dire consequences. Furthermore, regardless of international, regional and domestic laws protecting the right to a nationality, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 10 million persons are stateless worldwide. In addition to not being able to vote or run for public office, stateless persons are often unable to access other fundamental rights, such as the right to education, housing or health care. Stateless persons are also vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and human trafficking. Furthermore, despite their close connection in history, the protection of stateless persons has, for decades, taken a backseat to that of refugees and asylum seekers. As a result, stateless persons are often forced to rely on the safeguards provided by the mechanisms designed to protect refugees and asylum seekers and, while these may be able to alleviate some of the consequences of statelessness, they will never be able to provide an absolute solution to statelessness – i.e. the granting of nationality. This reliance on the asylum system is evident in South Africa, where no specific laws or procedures protecting stateless persons exist. In examining the refugee law in South Africa, the manner in which these laws are implemented, as well as other legislation relevant to the protection of stateless persons, it is evident that the South African government’s policy decisions relating to the asylum system are aiming to shrink the asylum protection space in South Africa and are inadvertently leading to situations of both de jure and de facto statelessness. In addition, the conduct of the DHA is placing large groups at risk of statelessness and leaving vulnerable groups with little to no legal remedies. In a State which hosts an estimated 10 000 stateless persons, these policy decisions and implementation practices urgently need to be addressed in order to resolve existing situations of statelessness as well as to prevent future statelessness. 2020-02-10T07:08:55Z 2020-02-10T07:08:55Z 2019 2020-01-27T12:44:36Z Master Thesis Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30936 eng application/pdf Department of Public Law Faculty of Law |
| spellingShingle | Human Rights Law Lee, Megan Catherine Is South African Refugee Law creating a stateless generation? |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Is South African Refugee Law creating a stateless generation? |
| title_full | Is South African Refugee Law creating a stateless generation? |
| title_fullStr | Is South African Refugee Law creating a stateless generation? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Is South African Refugee Law creating a stateless generation? |
| title_short | Is South African Refugee Law creating a stateless generation? |
| title_sort | is south african refugee law creating a stateless generation |
| topic | Human Rights Law |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30936 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT leemegancatherine issouthafricanrefugeelawcreatingastatelessgeneration |