This research paper examines the relation between extradition and asylum. The principle of non-refoulement, as enshrined in international refugee and human rights law as well as international customary law, plays an important role in this regard and constitutes the principal element defining the legal framework for the interplay between extradition and asylum.
Sibylle Kapferer, The Interface Between Extradition and Asylum, Research Paper No.5, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), November 2003, https://www.refworld.org/reference/lpprs/unhcr/2003/39662 [accessed 30 April 2026]
This paper examines a particular category of measures which present serious risks to refugee protection: several current or evolving international treaties and agreements which contravene existing obligations to protect refugees. Not all are directed towards refugees or asylum seekers. As international treaties, however, they have greater significance than unilateral state actions, and arguably the same standing in international law as the 1951 Refugee Convention itself.
Karin Landgren, Deflecting international protection by treaty: bilateral and multilateral accords on extradition, readmission and the inadmissibility of asylum requests, Working Paper No.10, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), June 1999, https://www.refworld.org/reference/research/unhcr/1999/92191 [accessed 30 April 2026]
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Note on International Protection (submitted by the High Commissioner), A/AC.96/728, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 2 August 1989, https://www.refworld.org/policy/unhcrnotes/unhcr/1989/15067 [accessed 30 April 2026]
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Note on Problems of Extradition Affecting Refugees, EC/SCP/14, 27 August 1980, https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/unhcr/1980/61668 [accessed 30 April 2026]
