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Wallace, Rebecca --- "Internal relocation alternative in refugee status determination: is the risk/protection dichotomy reality or myth? A gendered analysis" [2013] ELECD 812; in Juss, Singh Satvinder; Harvey, Colin (eds), "Contemporary Issues in Refugee Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) 289

Book Title: Contemporary Issues in Refugee Law

Editor(s): Juss, Singh Satvinder; Harvey, Colin

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782547655

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Internal relocation alternative in refugee status determination: is the risk/protection dichotomy reality or myth? A gendered analysis

Author(s): Wallace, Rebecca

Number of pages: 22

Abstract/Description:

Currently the division of opinion is as to whether justification for the withholding of recognition of refugee status from a person at risk of being persecuted in one part of a country but not in another is to be found in the ‘well-founded’ element or in the words ‘protection of that country’. In short, the issue is whether the analysis is one of risk or one of protection. In the United Kingdom, Australia and the European Union the analysis is referenced to the former whereas in New Zealand and in Canada it is referenced to the latter. This statement, of the New Zealand Refugee Status Appeals Authority (SAA), encapsulates a divergence of practice that purportedly exists between jurisdictions when deliberating internal relocation as an alternative to granting refugee status. However whether this ‘perceived risk versus sufficiency of protection’ dichotomy is as manifest as suggested is disputable, which this chapter will discuss through examining refugee decisions concerning gender-based persecution. Changes in the typical refugee profile have led to an increase in refugee status decision-makers considering the possibility of internal relocation (also referred to as internal flight or protection) as an alternative to surrogate international protection. However, historically different emphasis has been placed on the factors regarding the feasibility of internal relocation. As such, different decision-making bodies apparently tend to accentuate either the perceived risk a claimant faces in his or her own country, or on the sufficiency of the protection offered by his or her own state.