Country guidance, country of origin information and the international protection needs of persons fleeing armed conflicts

Querton, Christel

Abstract

The article explores whether the European Union Agency for Asylum's country guidance (CG) reflects the international protection needs of persons fleeing armed conflicts. It uses the Agency's guidance on Iraq as a case study through the lens of objectivity and relevance. The article highlights the disproportionate reliance on military and State-centric sources which adopt a traditional and narrow concept of security grounded in quantitative approaches. The article argues that the main sources of Country of Origin Information used in CG are inadequate to capture the present-day nature of violence in situations of armed conflict. The article makes the case for a re-balancing of sources to be included in CG that reflects wider security studies perspectives and approaches. The article also suggests that the indicators of indiscriminate violence used by the Agency are grounded in international humanitarian law norms and therefore fail to reflect international protection standards, whilst also being inadequate to capture the nature of violence in situations of contemporary armed conflict. The use of sources of information adopting wider security perspectives and qualitative approaches are encouraged and other factors, such as spheres of control by actors to the conflict, are proposed for inclusion into international protection assessments.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 3, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Mar 28, 2023
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2023
• Deposit Date: Feb 6, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 12, 2023
• Journal: Refugee Survey Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 1020-4067
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-695X
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 204-244
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdad003
• Keywords: Political Science and International Relations, Geography, Planning and Development
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10434571