The Extent and Content of the Non-Refoulement Principe

With the Syrian refugee crisis after the civil war, which broke out in Syria in 2011, the attention of the international community has once again turned to the international refugee law. In this context, it is possible to claim that the refugee influx from Syria has brought important and problematic areas in refugee law to daylight. In this framework, especially precautions taken by unwilling states for not allowing refugees to step in and worsening situation of the refugees in front of the closed borders have made the non-refoulement principle an important subject in the agenda of the international community. Since regulations concerning the principle in different treaties and state practice vary, some important points of the principle remain vague and as a result of this vagueness unwilling states interpret the principle accordingly with their political and economic interests. This paper critically outlines the important points of the principle and evaluates the principle by referring treaty law, the decisions of different international courts and treaty bodies and to the doctrine. Furthermore, in line with these evaluations, in this paper, some reform proposals with regards to defining the non-refoulement principle are presented