Exclusion Under Article 1F(a) of the 1951 Convention in Canada

Following the traumatic events in the United States on 11 September 2001 and the immediate heightened security response by the international community and states, many human rights and refugee advocates, analysts and commentators noted that the new security measures introduced by states would limit human rights and severely constrain refugees' access to asylum. There was also widespread concern that Article 1F(a), the exclusion clauses, of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which apply to those suspected, for serious reasons, of committing crimes against peace, war crimes or crimes against humanity, would be applied and interpreted liberally to limit further the number of refugees. This article examines this proposition in relation to Canada by examining a number of Article 1F(a) cases decided by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) and the Federal Court (Canada) since 9/11. Non-random samples of refugee law cases were drawn from the IRB's Reflex publication and from the Federal Court's (Canada) website. From the twenty-six IRB refugee decisions and the twenty-three Federal Court (Canada) appeal judgments analyzed, it was found that there were no discernable differences in the manner that Article 1F(a) cases were being decided by either the IRB or the Federal Court (Canada) after 9/11. Cases involving Article 1F(a) remain amongst the most difficult and complex for refugee law decision makers and appeal judges to decide, not only because they require the application and interpretation of international humanitarian and criminal law, but because they also involve the refugee claimant's or appellant's alleged complicity in these heinous international crimes

Appeal · Convention · Crimes against humanity · Criminology · Human rights · Immigration · International law · Political science · Refugee · Refugee law · Sociology · War crime · International Law and Aviation · International Law and Human Rights · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Law