asylum

Territorial asylum is protection granted by a State within its own territory. It is a right of the State, not of the individual: every person has the right to seek asylum (Article 14, UDHR), but no State is bound to grant it, though the rule of non-refoulement forbids returning a person to a country where he faces persecution.

Diplomatic asylum, granted in an embassy, is not generally recognised in international law; the ICJ in the Asylum case (1950) rejected a regional custom claimed by Colombia. India is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and has no asylum law; it deals with refugees through the Foreigners Act and administrative policy, while Article 21 protects all persons.

Example

The ICJ in the Asylum case held that Colombia had not proved a regional custom allowing it to grant diplomatic asylum unilaterally.

In Indian law

• Article 14, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
• Asylum case (Colombia v. Peru) (International Court of Justice, 1950)

See also

refugee · non-refoulement · extradition · diplomatic immunity

Read more in the study notes

• Persons of unsound mind and persons disqualified by law (Contract I)
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 (Human Rights Law and Practice)
• The African system: the Banjul Charter, Commission and Court (Human Rights Law and Practice)
• General defences in tort (Law of Torts)
• Nuisance (Law of Torts)
• Sources of international law (Public International Law)