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10. REFUGEE PROTECTION

A refugee is a person who is outside his or her country of origin (or place of last habitual residence, if the individual is Stateless) who has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion. 102
 

Internally displaced persons are individuals who have fled or been displaced from their homes, often for the same reasons as refugees, but have not crossed a national border. Internally displaced persons nonetheless enjoy basic rights and protection under human rights and humanitarian law.
10.1 Refugees or internally displaced persons should be allowed to contact the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is the principal international body responsible to protect and assist refugees.
10.2 Refugees should not be returned or expelled to a territory where their lifes or freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or because of their political opinion. 103
10.3 Refugees should be permitted to apply formally for asylum or refugee status. They should be permitted to seek review in the national legal system of any decision to be expelled from a country of refuge. 104
10.4 Refugees who enter or are present illegally in a State shall not be punished, or unnecessarily detained as a result of their illegal entry or presence, if they arrive directly from the country where they fear persecution and if they make themselves known to the authorities of the country of refuge. 105
10.5 Refugees enjoy fundamental civil rights, including the right to:
 

  1.  life and the security of person;
  2. freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention;
  3. not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment;
  4. protection against arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy, family, home or correspondence;
  5. equality before the courts and other authorities administering justice;
  6. freedom of thought, opinion, conscience and religion; and
  7. retain their own language, culture and tradition. 106

10.6 A refugee shall have free access to courts of law. 107
10.7 Refugees shall enjoy the same fundamental civil rights as all other citizens, particularly, basic economic and social rights. For example, where a rationing system exists, which applies to the population at large and regulates the general distribution of products in short supply, refugees, particularly women, children and the elderly, are to be accorded the same treatment as nationals. 108

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