Return in Dignity: A Neglected Protection Challenge

In the more modern context, safety and dignity are linked in numerous international agreements, peace treaties and UN documents, which stress that the return of refugees must take place in 'conditions of safety and dignity'. While considerable progress has been made in articulating detailed benchmarks on safety for returnees, the core principle of dignified return remains largely unexamined, both practically and theoretically. This paper explores the origins, evolution and content of the principle of return in 'safety and dignity', and focuses on the implications of dignity as a guiding principle for the governance of returnprocesses.

The first section of this article tracks the emergence of provisions on safe and dignified return in international law, peace agreements, UN documents and speeches made by United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees since 1978. This analysis demonstrates that return in safety and dignity has been a pillar of the rhetoric of the international refugee regime since Jean-Pierre Hocké's tenure as High Commissioner in the 1980s. However, it also shows that considerable confusion remains about what this idea means in practice, particularly in terms of dignity. The second section examines key theoretical perspectives on dignity, and addresses the insights these theories hold regarding return. Although the theoretical perspectives on this issue are diverse, this paper argues that from them we can distil at least two key components of a dignified return: first, the principle of refugee choice, and second, the need to redress the injustices that cause and characterise displacement.