Notes and references
1.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR). Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 217A (III) of 10 December 1948, Article 14.
2.
United Nations Convention relating to the Status
of Refugees. Adopted by the UN General Assembly
on 28 July 1951. Available at: http://www.unhcr.
org/.
3.
Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR), entered into force 23
March 1976; Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT), entered into force 26 June 1987;
Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR).
4.
Article 3 of the European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms (ECHR), entered into force 3 September
1953; Article 4 of the EU Charter of Fundamental
Rights, entered into force 18 December 2000; Article 5 of the American Convention on Human Rights
(ACHR), entered into force 18 July 1978.
13.
Jaranson J. et al. Somali and Oromo refugees: Correlates of torture and trauma history. American
Journal of Public Health 2004; 94(4): 591-598;
Kinzie J D. et al. Prospective one-year treatment
outcomes of tortured refugees: a psychiatric approach. Torture. 2012; 22 (1): 1-10.
14.
Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Istanbul
Protocol). 2004. HR/P/PT/8/Rev.1.
15.
Battjes H. in Care Full: Medico-legal reports and
the Istanbul Protocol in asylum procedures. 2006.
p.27.
16.
Mueller J., Schmidt M., Staeheli A., Maier T. Mental
health of failed asylum seekers as compared with
pending and temporarily accepted asylum seekers. European Journal of Public Health. 2010; 21
(2): 184-189.
17.
Herlihy J., Turner S. Should discrepant accounts
given by asylum seekers be taken as proof of
deceit? Torture 2006; 16(2): 81-92.
5.
Article 5 of the UDHR reads, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment.” This Article is widely
regarded as expressing customary international
law. See for example: Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) and Center for Justice and
International Law (CEJIL), Torture in International
Law: A guide to jurisprudence, 2008, p.6.
18.
6.
Article 33 of the UN Refugee Convention: Prohibition of expulsion or return (”Refoulement”); Article 3 of the UNCAT: “No State Party shall expel,
return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds
for believing that he would be in danger of being
subjected to torture.”
As a minimum, the MLR should include the circumstances of the interview, history, physical
and/or psychological examination, opinion and
authorship. See Principles on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, in Annex I to the Istanbul Protocol, para.
6(b).
19.
UNHCR. Asylum Trends 2012: Levels and Trends in
Industrialized Countries. March 2013. p.7.
7.
UN Committee against Torture. General Comment
No. 3: Implementation of Article 14 by State parties. 13 December 2012. Paragraphs 11 and 22.
Available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/
bodies/cat/GC3.htm.
8.
Ibid. Paragraph 13.
9.
Norredam M. Access to health-care for asylum
seekers. European Journal of Public Health. 2005;
16 (3):285-289.
10.
World Psychiatry Association guidance on mental
health and mental health care in migrants. World
Psychiatry. 2011; 10 (1):2-10.
11.
Heeren M., Mueller J., et al. Mental health of asylum-seekers: a cross-sectional study of psychiatric disorders. BMC Psychiatry. 2012; 12:114.
12.
In a study carried out in 2005 on the mental health
of Cambodian refugees who had resettled in the
USA, 54% of the respondents reported torture.
See Marshall G N. Schell T L. etc., cited in Carswell
K., Blackburn P., Barker C. The relationship between trauma, post-migration problems and the
psychological well-being of refugees and asylum
seekers. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 2011 Mar; 57(2):107-19.
20. Ibid. p.3. The main source countries for asylumseekers in the industrialised asylum-receiving
countries are Afghanistan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Serbia (and Kosovo), China and Pakistan.
21.
Ibid. p.3.
22. UNHCR Research Paper No. 253. Refugee resettlement: 2012 and beyond. February 2013. p.20. Resettlement involves the selection and transfer of
refugees from one state in which they have sought
protection to a third state which has agreed to
admit them, as refugees, with permanent residence status. In 2012 the UNHCR reported that
90% of resettlement places for refugees are provided by the USA, Canada and Australia. By contrast, only 11 EU countries have national annual
resettlement programmes, and they contributed
to only 6.6% of the global total number of resettlement places in 2011. Available at: http://www.
unhcr.org/510bd3979.html (last accessed on 23
September 2013).
23.
UNHCR. Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme. Progress report on resettlement. June 2012. p.2. Report No: EC/63/
SC/CRP.12. Available at: http://www.unhcr.
org/5006a6aa9.html (last accessed on 23 September 2013). The EU resettlement programme
intends to increase the number of resettlement
places made available in the European Union,
harmonise and coordinate resettlement priorities among EU Member States, and contribute to
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