The Regional Law of Refugee Protection in Africa

The regional law of refugee protection in Africa has never been fully articulated. The extent of the regime was, until recently, narrowly construed as not including human rights law; the history, and some contemporary aspects, of the regional refugee treaties were misunderstood; the nature of the systemic relationship between the regional and international refugee treaties had not been explored nor had discrete relationships between these two refugee instruments and between the regional refugee treaty on the one hand and regional human rights law on the other; and, most importantly, the regional legal regime for refugee protection in Africa had never been treated as a whole in one work.

Marina Sharpe fills these gaps by providing the first detailed analytical account of African regional refugee law. This book includes analysis of regional refugee law, regional human rights law, the relationships between international and regional refugee law, the relationships between regional refugee law and regional human rights law and the institutional architecture supportive of this treaty regime. This book clarifies and demystifies the complex workings and legal underpinnings of refugee protection in Africa.