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 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.

Chaloka Beyani is Senior Lecturer in International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science and. He is also the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons and has taught law previously at the Universities of Oxford and Zambia.