Towards a Common European Asylum System: Asylum, Human Rights, and European Values

Abstract

The turn of the millennium has been met with a considerable amount of work in the area of refugee protection, culminating in the UNHCR’s Agenda for Protection and Convention Plus initiatives. In addition, in 1999 the European Union embarked on a five-year program to develop a Common European Asylum System as mandated by the Treaty of Amsterdam. Work done by the European Commission sought to incorporate asylum into broader issues of immigration, border security, and foreign relations. As a result, entitlements were generally limited to those that have been mandated by applicable international, European, or domestic law. Some exceptions were further reduced at the political level. Functional values of bureaucratic efficiency and pragmatic political considerations converged to create the lowest common denominator. On the other hand, voices in civil society were raised to protest this approach, advocating that normative values that underpin international human rights law should serve as the interpretative context. In light of this debate, this may be an appropriate time for the international community to revisit the question of status for those not described in the Geneva Convention.

The Other Side of the Fence: Reconceptualizing the “Camp” and Migration Zones at the Borders of Spain

“…This securitization of Europe's frontiers is fundamentally rooted in the development of the European common area with the Schengen Convention, which came into force in 1995 (Boswell ; Geddes , ; Hatton ). Integrated into the larger European Union framework by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997, Schengen outlines the principles and conditions of freedom of movement within the EU and establishes a common external border (Shepherd :97–98). It is this external border that has become the focus of migration control.…”