The Concept of “Persecution” in Refugee Law: Indeterminacy, Context-sensitivity, and the Quest for a Principled Approach

Introduction In explaining to us the object and purpose of this workshop, Jean-Pierre Cavaillé has posited that the notion of persecution suffers from a “woeful lack of definition”. If this were unconditionally true, then international refugee law would be in jeopardy. It would be in jeopardy, because the concept of “persecution” is central to the universal refugee definition laid down by the 1951 Geneva Convention (GC). Indeed, Article 1A GC defines the refugee as someone who has a well-foun..