Europe Dr Liam Thornton, UCD Human Rights Network UCD School of - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

UCD School of Law

Law, Dignity & Socio- Economic Rights: The Case

• f Asylum Seekers in

Europe

Dr Liam Thornton, UCD Human Rights Network

• “[t]he treatment of aliens…has become a defining

challenge to an important aspect of the moral identity of the emerging European polity and the process of European integration.”

– J.H.H. Weiler (1992)

UCD School of Law

Introduction

Paper Structure (20 minutes)

1. Defining ‘asylum seekers’, socio-economic rights & rejecting language of ‘reception’ (3 minutes) 2. The plurality of socio-economic rights for asylum seekers: Comparative legal perspectives (12 minutes) 3. The Need for Clarity on Dignity (4 minutes)

UCD School of Law

Definition & Scope

• Definitions
• Asylum seeker
• Why socio-economic rights and not reception

conditions?

• My core argument:

– End result of this legal plurality, has been to deny asylum seekers access to mainstream social supports

UCD School of Law

Legal Plurality & Socio- Economic Rights of Asylum Seekers

• International Human Rights Law
• Council of Europe Human Rights Law
• European Union Human Rights Law

What does this tell us?

Grand pronouncements

• f

‘universality’ & ‘indivisibility’ of rights; of rights inhering in ‘all’, ‘everybody’ and ‘everyone’; mask the reality that states may legitimately differentiate in the protection of rights between citizens and residents

• n the one hand and asylum seekers on the other.

UCD School of Law

The Socio-Economic Rights of Asylum Seekers: From Legal Plurality to Clarity to Dignity?

• Presupposition of rights protection
• What is the solution? Is there any?
• Speaking notes and full paper available
• nline through www.humanrights.ie