Asylum-seeker and refugee protection in Sub-Saharan Africa: the peregrination of a persecuted human being in search of a safe haven, Cristiano d’Orsi

• Author: Lee Stone
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC-c6c3dca07
• Published date: 01 January 2016
• Date: 01 January 2016
• Record Number: sapr1_v31_n2_a7
• Pages: 1-2

1

BOOK REVIEW

ASYLUM-SEEKER AND REFUGEE

PROTECTION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA:

THE PEREGRINATION OF A PERSECUTED

HUMAN BEING IN SEARCH OF A SAFE

HAVEN

Cristiano d’Orsi

Routledge Research in Asylum, Migration and Refugee Law, 2016, 327 pages

ISBN 978–1–138–02542–4 (hbk)

ISBN 978–1–315–76956–1 (ebk)

Lee Stone

University of South Africa

Department of Public, Constitutional and International Law

True to the notion of African unity, strengthened by ideologies of pan-Africanism, the

conception of refugees in the 1969 Organisation of African Unity Refugee Convention1 is

broad and generous: it includes within its ambit refugees created not only by persecution

but also by ethnic conicts, wide-scale human rights violations, civil wars and violence

perpetrated by rebel groups and militias. Although almost every sub-Saharan African

state has undertaken to give meaningful effect to a liberal and humanitarian approach

to refugee protection, Garvey cynically asserts that refugee law rests on the ‘tragically

inadequate’ premise of being humanitarian,2 resulting in illusory protection for many

refugees. Likewise, d’Orsi’s Asylum-Seeker and Refugee Protection in Sub-Saharan

1 1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specic Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa (OAU Doc.

CAB/LEG/24.3); 1001 UNTS 45. The OAU Convention on Refugees was adopted on 10 September

1969 and entered into force on 20 June 1974.

2 JI Garvey, ‘Towards a Reformulation of International Refugee Law’ (1985) 26(2) Harvard International

Law Journal 483.

https://doi.org/ 10.25159/2522-6800/3198

ISSN 2522-6800 (Online) ISSN 2219-6412 (Print)

© Unisa Press 2017

Southern African Public Law

https://upjournals.co.za/index.php/SAPL/index

Volume 31 | Number 2 | 2016 | #3198 | 2 pages