난민정의상 특정사회집단의 구성원신분

The Refugee Convention is the first legal document in 1951 to recognize refugees as an international protected group. The four reasons for protection listed in the Refugee Convention, including race, religion, nationality and political opinion, reflect the core categories of refugees. The fifth reason, membership of a particular social group (MPSG), has not been defined in international law, but is a flexible legal basis for the protection of specific individuals as stipulated in other areas of international human rights law. The approaches taken by UNHCR are that MPSG can be confirmed through analysis of ‘characteristics to be protected’ and ‘social perception’, and that even in the absence of the former, MPSG should be determined based on the latter factor. In national practice, people who are persecuted for reasons of gender, sexual minorities, victims of domestic violence, disability, economic and social class, etc. are recognized as MPSG. MPSG is a flexible concept capable of accommodating groups of social minorities in need of protection that may arise unexpectedly and leading to an evolutionary and flexible interpretation as times change. On studying on foreign precedents, there is inconsistency in the interpretation of the MPSG. In order to establish a common standard, there may be a method of enacting and revising the national law that embodies the MPSG, but in reality, it is preferred to develop an appropriate interpretation of the MPSG centering on the refugee reasons of the Refugee Convention. Reviewing of foreign and domestic precedents it is founded that MPSG refugees are recognized based on immutability, social visibility, and the presence or absence of persecution, centered on the Refugee Convention and UNHCR guidelines. There are differences in application and interpretation within each country’s legal system, and it is left to discretionary interpretation based on international human rights law norms. The MPSG concept as a lever for promoting human rights is a legal safeguard that protects the human rights of unexpectedly persecuted groups in the future. We expect the will of decision makers and the accumulation of judicial practices based on this regards.