Clarifying asylum

Clarifying asylum

News:

1. Recently, Eduador cut off Internet access to WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange.

Important facts:

2. In 2012, to avoid rape allegations, Mr . Assange skipped bail and entered the Ecuadorean embassy, where he has since remained protected by diplomatic asylum status.

3. While Swedish prosecutors have dropped their investigations, a U.K. judge refused to withdraw the arrest warrant, making it clear that Mr. Assange will be arrested on bail-jumping charges the moment he leaves the Ecuadorean embassy.

4. Mr Assange’s health has been deteriorating and he needs passage to a hospital, which too, the U.K. has refused.

5. It is against this context that the advisory opinion from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), assumes significance.

6. The IACHR is an independent, multinational court that handles the human rights cases of people affected by the laws of countries that are members of the Organisation of American States (OAS).

7. It considered whether the human right of the asylum-seeker covered both “territorial asylum and diplomatic asylum” and concluded that it did.

8. It ruled that all nations have an obligation to ensue safe passage for asylum seekers to their final territory of asylum.

9. This implies that the U.K. has an obligation to allow safe passage for Mr. Assange to Ecuador, where he has been granted political asylum as well as citizenship.

10. The IACHR’s advisory opinion reflects the moral victory for Mr Assange.