The right to seek and obtain asylum under the African human rights system

Public Seminar Series, Hilary term 2014. Seminar by Dr Chaloka Beyani (London School of Economics and the United Nations). Recorded on 26 February 2014 at the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford. In this seminar, Dr Beyani explores the results of his research into the right to seek and obtain asylum under African human rights instruments, also contained in his recent book Protection of the Right to Seek and Obtain Asylum Under the African Human Rights System (Brill | Nijhoff 2013). The use of international human rights machinery to protect refugees has acquired an important dimension in recent years. This is true of both the United Nations treaty body system and the African, European and Inter-American regional systems of human rights. The result is a dynamic international invigoration of traditional refugee law that, in contradistinction, tends to be applied at the level of national courts and tribunals. Yet the precise role of human rights in the protection of refugees is sometimes viewed with suspicion and uncertainty. This commentary provides a valuable insight into the use of human rights in the protection of refugees through the prism of the African human rights system.