A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

Section ii. recommendationS related to refugeeS in the weSt african SuB-region
Refugees in Ghana and the West African Sub-Region
Refugee situations in Africa are governed by the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, the 1969
Organization of African Unity Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in
Africa, as well as the panoply of international and regional human rights instruments including the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’
Rights. In Ghana, site of the largest Liberian refugee settlement in the sub-region, the Refugee Law
of 1993 governs many aspects of the situation.
International refugee law and Ghanaian law contain three fundamental principles – the right to
return to one’s own country, the prohibition of refoulement, and the absolutely voluntary nature of
refugee repatriation. States are prohibited from expelling or returning a refugee to the frontiers of
territories where he or she would be threatened with persecution. 157 “Even when the circumstances
in the country of origin have undergone a fundamental change, individual refugees may continue to
have a well-founded fear of persecution or compelling reasons not to return arising out of previous
persecution. [When this has] been determined, the ‘ceased circumstances’ cessation clauses should
thus not apply to them.” 158 Moreover, refugees are entitled to basic human rights and fundamental
freedoms. The Advocates recommends that the Government of Ghana and other West African host
nation governments comply fully with their obligations under domestic and international refugee law
as well as international human rights law. The Advocates recommends the following:
• The Government of Ghana and other host countries should immediately cease any activities
with respect to Liberian refugees that impose physical, psychological, or material pressure on
individuals duly recognized as having refugee status to return. 159
• Despite changed country conditions in Liberia, the Government of Ghana and other host
countries should recognize that compelling reasons may, for certain individuals, support the
continuation of refugee status.
o Host countries, in collaboration with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees,
should facilitate ongoing asylum applications and timely refugee status determinations,
specifically, “Asylum requests of Liberians should be examined thoroughly in fair
and effective individual refugee status determination procedures with the necessary
procedural safeguards, taking into consideration the individual merits of their
asylum claims, based on the criteria in the 1951 Convention, and where applicable,
Article I.1 of the 1969 [African Union] Convention…Additionally, in light of the
particularly violent nature of the armed conflict in past years, asylum claims of
victims of particularly atrocious forms of persecution suffered in the past should be
examined taking into account the consequences and effects of such persecution on
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Chapter Fourteen