Conclusions

• Author: Sasha Baglay/Martin Jones
• Pages: 443-450

443

CHAPTER 13

CONCLUSIONS

A. OVERVIEW OF THE FEATURES OF

CANADIAN REFUGEE LAW

This book has exam ined many aspects of refugee protection in Canada:

inland and overseas refugee determination, formal law and govern-

ment policy, the historic and contemporary context of refugee law, and

the domestic and international principles of refugee protection. It has

sought to present Canadian refugee law as an independent system, yet

one that is open to and inf‌luenced by other branches of domestic law,

international law, the practices of other jurisdictions, and the general

global trends in forced migration.

Refugee law generally — and Canadian refugee law, in particular

— is no longer only about refugees understood in the traditional sense

of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.1 Both in the inland

refugee determination system and the overseas selection of refugees,

Canada offers protection to many individuals who fall outside the clas-

sical def‌inition of “Convention refugee.” Canadian refugee law now

embodies categories def‌ined by Canada’s obligations under the Refugee

Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and

the Convention Against Tortureand Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading

Treatment or Punishment. It does so through the concepts of “Conven-

tion refugee” and “person in need of protection” as well as categories

1 28 July 1951, 189 UNTS 150 [Refugee Conve ntion].