A critique of refugee governance in international law: case study of kenya
Abstract
Post-colonial Africa is rife with political, socio-economic and even environmental
problems. All these processes cause forced migration of people, hence Africa leads in
the world refugee population. 1 Consequently, the refugee problem in Africa has
remained a major issue, which still stands in the entire African renaissance.? However,
the United Nations came up with the 1951 Geneva Convention which set certain
obligations that the host states must satisfy. Later, the OAU Convention on Refugees of
1969 incorporated the same and both set out that host states have the primary
responsibility with regard to management of refugees and their protection thereof.
Whereas host governments may be largely responsible for the treatment of refugees
in the 'developed world', the fact is that in a country like Kenya and basically host
states in the developing world, where in practice over the past years, the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (hereinafter referred to as UNHCR) and Non-
Governmental Organizations (hereinafter referred to as NGOs) have assumed the host
state's primary obligation for status determination and control of refugee populations in
camps, they (UNHCR and NGOs) may in practice bear equal share of responsibility
with regard to management of refugee affairs.
Citation
LLM ThesisSponsorhip
University of NairobiPublisher
University of Nairobi School of law