Persecution - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition persecution

Definition :

Persecution, implies a failure by the State to make protection available against the ill-treatment or violence which the person suffers at the hands of his persecutors, Horvath v. Home Secretary [HL(E)], (2000) 3 WLR 379.

Persecution, is most appropriately defined as the sustained or systemic failure of State protection in relation to one of the core entitlements which has been recognised by the international community, Law of Refugee Status (1991), p. 112.

Persecution, is normally related to action by the authorities of a country. It may also emanate from sections of the population that do not respect the standards established by the laws of the country concerned. A case in point may be religious intolerance, amounting to persecution, in a country otherwise secular, but where sizable fractions of the population do not respect the religious beliefs of their neighbours. Where serious discriminatory or other offensive acts are committed by the local populace, they can be considered as persecution if they are knowingly tolerated by the authorities, or if the authorities refuse, or prove unable, to offer effective protection. (U.N.H.C.R. Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status (1992).

Means sufficiently serious ill-treatment, whether by violation of a fundamental human right or by selective harassment of a fundamental human right or by selective harassment of a sufficiently serious nature, Sandralingham v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, (1996) Imm AR 97.