The San Remo expert roundtable addressed the question of the internal protection/relocation/flight alternative as it relates to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The discussion was based on a background paper by Professor James C. Hathaway and Michelle Foster, University of Michigan, entitled ‘Internal Protection/Relocation/Flight Alternative as an Aspect of Refugee Status Determination’. In addition, roundtable participants were provided with written contributions including from Hon. Justice Baragwanath, High Court of New Zealand, Hugh Massey, United Kingdom, Marc Vincent, Norwegian Refugee Council, Reinhard Marx, practitioner, Germany, and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. Participants included thirty-three experts from twenty-three countries, drawn from governments, NGOs, academia, the judiciary, and the legal profession. Hugo Storey, from the International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ), moderated the discussion.

There has been no consistent approach taken to the notion of IPA/IRA/IFA by States Parties: a number of States apply a reasonableness test; others apply varying criteria, including in one jurisdiction the ‘internal protection alternative’ approach as defined in the background paper. UNHCR has expressed its concern over recent years that some States have resorted to IPA/IRA/IFA as a procedural short cut for deciding the admissibility of claims. Given the varying approaches, it was considered timely to take stock of the different national practices with a view to offering decision makers a more structured analysis to this aspect of refugee status determination.