Immigration Article of the Day: “Finding the Third State: Internatonal Human Rights Law and State Responsibility for Iraqi Refugees” by FAHAD SIDDIQUI

“Finding the Third State: Internatonal Human Rights Law and State Responsibility for Iraqi Refugees” by FAHAD SIDDIQUI, York University – Osgoode Hall Law School, University of London – School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

ABSTRACT: This paper explores the relative silence of international law scholarship on the question of state responsibility for Iraqis displaced since the invasion of 2003. I argue that that the scope of application provisions of international and regional human rights instruments makes it difficult to ascribe state responsibility to transnational acts that generate refugee flows. Specifically, the establishment by human rights bodies of an “effective control” threshold to determine the extraterritorial obligations of states has created a responsibility gap in relation to refugees produced by international uses of force. As a result, international human rights law effectively imposes liability on the domestic refugee-producing acts of states while immunizing similar refugee-producing acts perpetrated beyond state boundaries.

KJ