contrary to the United nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) conclusion that “in general, a refugee claim must be determined in a final decision before execution of any extradition order.”239 Otherwise, the extraditing state runs the risk of breaching the nonrefoulement obligation. As one analyst has emphasized: Where an extradition request concerns an asylum seeker, the requested state will not be in a position to establish whether extradition is lawful unless the question of refugee status is clarified. The determination of whether or not the person concerned has a well-founded fear of persecution must therefore precede the decision on extradition. This does not of itself require the suspension of the extradition procedure. It does mean, however, that the decision on extradition should be made after the final determination on refugee status, even if extradition and asylum procedures are conducted in parallel.240 Certainly, once a person has been recognized as a refugee, extradition can be refused on the grounds that it would breach the nonrefoulement obligation (to which the only narrow exception in the Refugee Convention is article 33(2)). Furthermore, the absolute prohibition against the risk of torture remains a crucial ground for denial of an extradition request. In A.’s case, the Austrian authorities relied on two ineffective and inadequate devices to circumvent their nonrefoulement obligation under international refugee and human rights law. First, in the course of the extradition proceedings, the Austrian court accepted woefully inadequate assurances from the Russian authorities as an alleged safeguard against A.’s risk of torture. The diplomatic assurances proffered by the Russian Procurator General simply reiterated Russia’s existing legal obligations, which A. claimed the Russian authorities violated the first time they detained and ill-treated him. The Russian assurances thus cannot be considered an effective safeguard against torture and ill-treatment. 239 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “Background Note on the Application of the Exclusion Clauses: Article 1F of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees,” para. 102 [online] http://migration.ucdavis.edu/rs/printfriendly.php?id=130_0_3_0 (retrieved March 2, 2005). 240 Sibylle Kapferer, The Interface between Extradition and Asylum, Legal and Protection Policy Research Series, Department of International Protection, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, PPLA/2203/05, November 2003, para. 291 [online] http://www.unhcr.ch/cgibin/texis/vtx/home/opendoc.pdf?tbl=PROTECTION&id=3fe84fad4&page=protect (retrieved March 1, 2005). HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17 NO. 4(D) 78