Migrants' and refugees' rights : a brief international law perspective

Abstract

The issue of migrants and refugees, especially in a Mediterranean context, has become the subject of political sabre-rattling, emotive language and fractious debate. All of this may be understandable to some extent, but the argument put forward in this paper is that beyond emotion and debate there are rules of international law, which are applicable to migrants and refugees. In essence the paper seeks to remind that migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are human beings who are entitled to the protection which international human rights law establishes. In the 1990s the UN human rights system adopted the mantra that “Women’s Rights are Human Rights”. Within the emotive and controversial arena of migration and refugees we would do well to remind ourselves that “migrant and refugee rights are human rights” too.