16. In a Declaration which was adopted at the Ministerial Meeting of States Parties of 12–13 December 2001 and subsequently endorsed by the General Assembly, the States party to the 1951 Convention and/or 1967 Protocol acknowledged “…the continuing relevance and resilience of this international regime of rights and principles, including at its core the principle of non-refoulement, whose applicability is embedded in customary international law.” 35 At the regional level, the customary international law character of the principle of non-refoulement has also been re-affirmed in a Declaration adopted by Latin American States participating at a gathering to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the 1984 Cartagena Declaration. 36 B. Non-Refoulement Obligations Under International Human Rights Law 1. International Human Rights Treaties 17. Non-refoulement obligations complementing the obligations under the 1951 Convention, which preceded the major human rights treaties, have also been established under international human rights law. More specifically, States are bound not to transfer any individual to another country if this would result in exposing him or her to serious 35 36 general, be consistent which such rules, and that instances of State conduct inconsistent with a given rule should generally have been treated as breaches of that rule, not as indications of the recognition of a new rule. If a State acts in a way prima facie incompatible with a recognized rule, but defends its conduct by appealing to exceptions or justifications contained within the rule itself, then whether or not the State’s conduct is in fact justifiable on that basis, the significance of that attitude is to confirm rather than to weaken the rule.” Declaration of States Parties to the 1951 Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol adopted at the Ministerial Meeting of States Parties of 12–13 December 2001, HCR/MMSP/2001/09, 16 January 2002 (available at: http://www.unhcr.org/home/RSDLEGAL/3d60f5557.pdf, last accessed on 30 October 2006) at preambular para. 4. Earlier, the Executive Committee of UNHCR observed that “the principle of non-refoulement … was progressively acquiring the character of a peremptory rule of international law.” See Executive Committee Conclusion No. 25 (XXXIII), supra footnote 20, para. (b). Pursuant to Article 53 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331, entered into force 27 January 1980 [hereinafter: “1969 Vienna Convention”], peremptory norms of general international law, or jus cogens, are norms accepted and recognized by the international community of States as a whole as norms from which no derogation is permitted and which can be modified only by a subsequent norm of general international law having the same character. Article 64 of the 1969 Vienna Convention provides that peremptory norms of international law prevail over treaty provisions. Mexico Declaration and Plan of Action to Strengthen the International Protection of Refugees in Latin America of 16 November 2004 (available at: http://www.unhcr.org/home/RSDLEGAL/ 424bf6914.pdf, last accessed on 30 October 2006), at preliminary para. 7 (“Recognizing the jus cogens nature of the principle of non-refoulement, including non-rejection at the border, the cornerstone of international refugee law, which is contained in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its Protocol of 1967, and also set out in Article 22 (8) of the American Convention on Human Rights and Article 3 of the 1984 Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, …”). See also Section III(5) of the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, supra footnote 26 (“…[The] principle [of non-refoulement] is imperative in regard to refugees and in the present state of international law should be acknowledged and observed as a rule of jus cogens.”). 8