Recognizing and ensuring the right of refugees in Cameroon: An inside of understanding the complexities in evaluating the principle of non-refoulement

Abstract

Protecting refugees is an important phenomenon in recognizing refugees rights under International law. It therefore becomes the responsibility of states in ensuring that everyone entering, staying and leaving its territory in the person of refugees should be accorded maximum protection. Even with the aspect that States when ratifying the Refugee Convention of 1951 must accept the free movement of such person, as they have acquired an article recognized under International law. This article seeks to highlight the fact that the principle of non-refoulement articulated in the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees has given responsibilities to States in ensuring the effective protection of refugees’ rights by averting their return or expulsion to countries where they will be persecuted. As seen in evolving international law policies, this principle is gradually gaining ground as a peremptory norm of International Law. This article also indicates that the application of this principle in International Law is supplemented by International Human Rights instruments. Cameroon has internationalized the 1951 Convention by enacting a law relating to the status of refuges in Cameroon. As such, this research holds that the exceptions to the principle of non-refoulement provided under Cameroonian law does not afford enough protection to refugees thus necessitating that the law should be reviewed.