The right of asylum (or political asylum ) is an old legal concept, according to which a person persecuted for her political opinions or her religious beliefs in her country can be protected by another sovereign authority, a foreign country, or religious authorities (at the time medieval).

The political asylum should not be confused with the right of the political refugees, which relates to important flows of population, while the right of asylum concerns individuals, and is generally delivered on a case-by-case basis. However, the two concepts can meet, as each refugee can request from in an individual capacity the political asylum.

This right finds its origins in a Western long tradition, but which had already been recognized by Egyptian civilization, Greek and Hebraic, in different forms. Thus Descartes required asylum of the Netherlands, Voltaire in England, Hobbes, in France (followed by many English aristocrats during the English civil war). Each state can thus offer its protection to foreign people who can be worried for their convictions.

However, the development of the treaties of extradition during the XXe century called into question the right of asylum, although the international law considers that a State does not have any obligation to give of the criminals pled in a foreign state: it is a consequence of the Souveraineté of each state, which wants that each one has a legal authority on the people on her Territoire.

At the time medieval

At the time medieval, the right of asylum is the protection offered by the Église during all the Moyen-âge, with fugitive which took refuge in a church.

This right of asylum is instituted by the 1st gun of the I {{er}} council of Orleans, in 511. Very fugitive, fatal, Adultery, Flight or, which takes refuge in a church, or his dependences, or in the house of a bishop, is protected by the right of asylum:

• one cannot make some leave force;
• it can negotiate a compensation with the people which it harmed;
• its prosecutors must swear on the Évangile which they will not try to obtain a Vengeance.

It relates to also the Rapt, if the victim (man or woman) is agreeing, the slave in escape, which is returned to its Master, if the Master swears on the Gospel not to prevail.

The right of asylum thus always spares a possibility of loophole for all, even the criminals. This asylum is inviolable: even if it is it sometimes, those which do not respect it are always the object of reprobation.

The right of asylum always is confirmed then extended by the Concile S following: initially with the ring placed at the entry of the churches, then with the steps of the martyrdoms and the bases of the crosses of crossroads and way.

Gradually, a population the “undesirable ones” is constituted around the sanctuaries.

Under the impulse of the legists, for whom nothing must be able to be withdrawn from the royal capacity, the right of asylum dies out starting from the end of the 16th century, and is not recognized gradually any more by the courts.

Today

Several international conventions devote today the principle of the right of asylum, of which the Universal declaration of the human rights of December 10th, 1948 and the Geneva Convention relating to the statute of the refugees of July 28th, 1951 with his protocol of 1967.

He is also proclaimed by the European texts: Treaty establishing the European Community (article 63, ex-73K), Agreements of Schengen of June 1st, 1985 and convention of application of June 19th, 1990, Charter of the basic rights of the European Union (article 18).

In France

See also: Right of asylum in France

Asylum in France east, according to OFPRA, “the protection which a State of reception grants to a foreigner who cannot, against persecution, to profit from that of the authorities of its country of origin”. It is a right granted to the people to who is recognized the quality of refugee.

In Switzerland

The right of asylum also exists in Suisse. Its mode of enforcement is a recurrent theme of the political debate. September 24th, 2006, a referendum consolidates the restrictive policy of Switzerland as regards right of asylum: from now on, the law envisages the rejection in an accelerated procedure of the requests of the people deprived of identity papers and which cannot be prevailed of an excusable reason. “ the law removes also the social security in favor of déboutés of the right of asylum and replaces it by simple a " d'urgence" helps; of 960 Swiss francs per month (590 euros), ''”.

References

See too

• Taken refuge
• Asylum shopping