42. In UNHCR’s view, the reasoning adopted by courts and human rights treaty bodies in their authoritative interpretation of the relevant human rights provisions is relevant also to the prohibition of refoulement under international refugee law, given the similar nature of the obligations and the object and purpose of the treaties which form their legal basis. 83 43. Thus, an interpretation which would restrict the scope of application of Article 33(1) of the 1951 Convention to conduct within the territory of a State party to the 1951 Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol would not only be contrary to the terms of the provision as well as the object and purpose of the treaty under interpretation, but it would also be inconsistent with relevant rules of international human rights law. It is UNHCR’s position, therefore, that a State is bound by its obligation under Article 33(1) of the 1951 Convention not to return refugees to a risk of persecution wherever it exercises effective jurisdiction. As with non-refoulement obligations under international human rights law, the decisive criterion is not whether such persons are on the State’s territory, but rather, whether they come within the effective control and authority of that State. UNHCR, Geneva 26 January 2007 83 As noted by the International Law Commission in its Report of the fifty-eighth session (1 May-9 June and 3 July-11 August 2006), U.N. Doc. A/61/10, at pp. 414–415, “Article 31(3)(c) [of the 1969 Vienna Convention, supra footnote 36] also requires the interpreter to consider other treaty-based rules so as to arrive at a consistent meaning. Such other rules are of particular relevance where parties to the treaty under interpretation are also parties to the other treaty, where the treaty rule has passed into or expresses customary international law or where they provide evidence of the common understanding of the parties as to the object and purpose of the treaty under interpretation or as to the meaning of a particular term.” 19

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