Out with the Old Approach: A Call to Take Socio-Economic Rights Seriously in Refugee Status Determination
In: New Zealand Yearbook of International LawSearch for other papers by Imogen Little in
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Abstract
The misconception that those fleeing from socio-economic rights abuses are necessarily economic migrants – and not refugees – has been pervasive from the outset in international refugee law. In 2005, New Zealand decisively rejected any hierarchy of human rights in its application of the Refugee Convention, and similar jurisdictions have since followed suit. Yet, in canvassing recent decisions of New Zealand’s appellate refugee body, the Immigration and Protection Tribunal, it becomes clear that a hierarchical approach to human rights still invades New Zealand’s refugee jurisprudence, seeping in through the interpretation of the requirement of serious harm in socio-economic claims. The unfortunate result has been perplexing and inconsistent outcomes for those fleeing from socio-economic rights abuses.