The Transnational Human Rights Review, Vol. 8, Iss. 1 [2021], Art. 1
Moreover, deprivation itself does not entitle the state to detain or restrict the individual’s
movements. The state must only resort to restrictions when necessary, and these restrictions must
be periodically reviewed. 59 Otherwise, temporally indefinite restrictions - where individuals are
kept without access to information and procedural rights - can assume the form of ill-treatment
and torture.60
(c)
Acts of Persecution?
The term “persecution” is mentioned under International Criminal Law (ICL), International
Human Rights Law (IHRL) and International Refugee Law (IRL) regimes. ICL defines the crime
of persecution as any act or omission which in fact, denies or violates a fundamental right as laid
down under international treaty or customary law. 61 Apart from the actus reus, ICL also requires
existence of the chapeau elements (widespread or systematic nature of actions) and showing of a
“special intent” to discriminate on any of the prohibited grounds of race, religion, nationality,
etc. These additional requirements are required for the limited purpose of imputing individual
criminal responsibility upon specific actors. 62
On the other hand, IHRL generally concerns itself with “discrimination”, and confines itself to
findings of state responsibility through the attribution of conduct, either under the primary or
secondary rules.63 Finally, the IRL regime has no accepted definition of “persecution”, although
the definition of a ‘refugee’ rests upon such a finding.64 In fact, according to Hugo Storey, the
only certainty offered by the refugee law text is over the interaction between the persecutor and
the persecuted. The interaction is such that the individual cannot seek or refuses to seek the
59
Ibid at para 102.
United Nations Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment, 22nd Sess, UN Doc. A/HRC/37/50, February 2018 at para 27 online:
<https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session37/Documents/A_HRC_37_50_EN.docx>.
61
Elements of Crime, Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (last amended 2010)
(1998); Prosecutor v Popovic et al, IT-05-88-A, Appeal Judgment (30 January 2015) at para 762(International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Appeals Chamber).
62
Ibid.
63
See, “State Responsibility: First Report on State Responsibility by James Crawford, Special Rapporteur” (1998),
UN Doc. A/CN.4/490 and Add. 1–7 at paras 14-15, 27.
64
Article 1A(2) of the Refugee Convention defines a Refugee as one who has a well-founded fear of being
persecuted on the basis of his membership (real or perceived) with enlisted groups (race, religion, nationality, a
social group, or those holding certain political beliefs).
60
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/thr/vol8/iss1/1
DOI: 10.60082/2563-4631.1096
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