Meghali Singh, Research Scholar, Ex - LL.M. Candidate at National Law University, Delhi
ABSTRACT
A refugee is not a person created from a tragic and violent circumstances taking place within it’s vicinity. It is an unfortunate status designated to a wretched individual or a group of individuals who does not have a safe place to survive. Now imagine the pain of that refugee who flees from the place of persecution to have a better living condition but is denied to seek that hope as well. A sovereign state has the responsibility to fulfill it’s citizens' rights but what happens when it fails to preserve it’s people’s rights. India, being a sovereign state has had a long tradition of giving protection to refugees since its partition in 1947. Though India is not a party to the Refugee Convention,1951 nor its additional protocol of 1967, it is still taking refugees from different parts of the world including people from Srilanka, Tibet, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and others as well. Due to its vague and ascertainable laws to govern refugees in its territory, the problems are faced by them. The biggest challenge is India’s non-obligation to the principle of non--refoulement in the International law regimes, it reaches the question of it’s obligation to the principle since India has ratified various other UN Human Rights Convention. This paper seeks to analyze the difficulties faced by refugees due to India’s lack of legislative measures for the protection of refugees and how India as a part of the International Human Rights Committee obliged with the principle of non-refoulement as part of customary international law.
Keywords: Refugees, Non-Refoulement, International Conventions, Human Rights, Customary International Law
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