5.2 Asylum

Meaning and juridical structure: asylum is the protection a state grants on its territory (or under its authority) to a person fleeing persecution or prosecution. The master distinction: every state has the right to grant (territorial sovereignty) but no one has a right to be granted — UDHR Article 14 gives a right to seek and enjoy asylum, not to receive it (the deliberate drafting compromise). Asylum is the positive shelter; non-refoulement the negative duty not to return to danger. Types: Territorial asylum — on the state's own territory: the regular case; Extra-territorial asylum — the exceptional, contested form: diplomatic asylum in embassies (recognized in Latin American regional conventions; not a general custom — the Asylum case (Colombia v. Peru, ICJ 1950): Haya de la Torre's shelter in the Colombian embassy; the Court held diplomatic asylum exceptional, requiring proof of a regional custom binding both states, and Colombia's unilateral qualification of the offence as "political" invalid); asylum on warships and aircraft (not merchant ships); Temporary/transit asylum; political asylum vs. the refugee regime's persecution-based protection. Nepal's practice: a territorial-asylum state by history (the Tibetan arrivals, the Bhutanese camps) without a domestic asylum statute — administered under government–UNHCR arrangements and the constitutional frame. Rights and duties of asylum-seekers: rights — non-refoulement pending determination; non- penalization of irregular entry (1951 Convention Art. 31);…