Download or read book Brief of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as “amicus Curiae” in Support of Respondent in the Supreme Court of the United States (October Term, 1990): Immigration and Naturalization Service, Petitioner “v.” Joseph Patrick Doherty, Respondent written by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This brief, submitted by the Office of the UNHCR with the consent of the parties, supports the argument of the Respondent, to wit: 1) that international law requires that an asylum seeker receive a hearing and an opportunity to present the facts of his claim for asylum and withholding of deportation prior to any determination that the asylum seeker is ineligible for such protection; 2) that both international law (in terms of the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol) and the United States Refugee Act of 1980 provide an analytical framework for excluding undeserving individuals from the protection afforded refugees; and 3) that, in any case, it is unnecessary and contrary to the letter and spirit of international refugee law to deny asylum based on foreign policy criteria. In this last connection, it is argued that the politicization of asylum determination, especially on foreign policy concerns, would undermine the international system established to protect refugees by giving impetus to other States to ignore their humanitarian responsibilities. The brief supports the Court of Appeals' decision that Congress intended to conform US law to the provisions of the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, and that the definition of 'refugee' in these instruments requires status based on an evidentiary hearing granted to the asylum seeker. Since the inclusion clauses of the refugee definition allow a reasoned basis upon which undeserving individuals may be denied refugee status, it is argued that it is not necessary to go outside this analytical framework and politicize the determination process in order to deny refugee status. Moreover, the brief stresses that the non-political nature of the established criteria for protection must be maintained or else the international system of protection would be at risk of being undermined by all manner of political interests.