Hong Kong is a party to a number of international instruments that impose non-refoulement obligations. However, the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (“Refugee Convention”) has never been extended to Hong Kong. Despite this fact, and due to a serious of judicial decisions, Hong Kong introduced the Unified Screening Mechanism (‘USM’), to process claims for international protection, includes those as relating to the relevant criteria as within the Refugee Convention.
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Following a detailed analysis, the overall standard of Decision-making observed was found to be poor on all criteria evaluated. As repeated throughout were key errors including both mistakes in the application of basic legal concepts such as: the assessment of evidence; the legal analysis of prospective risk; the evaluation of credibility; and, in the evaluation of factual/evidential matters, most notably the evaluation of Country of Origin Information.
Measuring Quality:
Refugee Status Determination in Hong Kong
Isaac Laban Shaffer
[Head of Legal Services of Justice Centre HK]
Hong Kong is a party to a number of international instruments that impose non-refoulement obligations. However, the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (“Refugee Convention”) has never been extended to Hong Kong. Despite this fact, and due to a serious of judicial decisions, Hong Kong introduced the Unified Screening Mechanism (‘USM’), to process claims for international protection, includes those as relating to the relevant criteria as within the Refugee Convention.
.
.
.
Following a detailed analysis, the overall standard of Decision-making observed was found to be poor on all criteria evaluated. As repeated throughout were key errors including both mistakes in the application of basic legal concepts such as: the assessment of evidence; the legal analysis of prospective risk; the evaluation of credibility; and, in the evaluation of factual/evidential matters, most notably the evaluation of Country of Origin Information.