International Criminal Law and New Zealand Rufugee Status Determinations: A Case Note on Attorney-General v Tamil X

Abstract

Refugee law protects the most vulnerable people in society. It provides, for those who fear persecution in their home states, a catalogue of rights and protections in a safe country elsewhere. It aims to ensure that those who cannot be protected by their state, through no fault of their own, will be protected by the international community. But conflicts are increasingly complex, and atrocities are frequently committed by both sides in combat. Fault is becoming harder to determine and it is harder and harder to distinguish the persecutors from the persecuted.