Fromnon-(prefix meaning ‘not’) +refoulement.[1]Refoulement is borrowed fromFrenchrefoulement(“act of pushing something back (as gunpowder into a gun barrel, or water by a dam); act of water overflowing; forced relocation of a group of people; forced repatriation of asylum-seekers or refugees”), fromrefouler(“to cause to flow or turn back; to repress, suppress; to repulse; to trample on again”) (fromre-(prefix meaning ‘again’) +fouler(“to impress, stamp; to trample, walk on; to mistreat, oppress”) (ultimately fromMedieval Latinfullare(“to make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing, to full”), fromLatinfullō(“one who fulls cloth, fuller”), possibly fromProto-Indo-European*bʰleh₃-(“to blow; to inflate, swell”)) +-ment(suffix formingnouns fromverbs, usually denoting resulting actions or states).
non-refoulement (uncountable)
- (international law) Theprinciple that aperson (particularly arefugee) should not bereturned to anarea (chiefly theircountry of origin) where they wouldfacemistreatment.
- Antonym:refoulement
2008, Vladislava Stoyanova, “The Principle ofNon-refoulement and the Right of Asylum-seekers to Enter State Territory”, inInterdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law[1], volume 3, number 1, Bay Shore, N.Y.: Council for American Students in International Negotiations,→ISSN,→OCLC, page 1:In international law, there is a principle that is of paramount importance—the principle ofnon-refoulement (prohibition to return). The principle is applicable to any refugee, asylum-seeker or an alien who needs some form of shelter from the state whose control he/she is under. Thenon-refoulement principle means that states cannot return aliens to territories where they might be subjected to torture, inhumane or degrading treatment, or where their lives and freedoms might be at risk.
principle that a person should not be returned to an area where they would face mistreatment
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, March 2022;“non-refoulement,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
non-refoulement on Wikipedia.Wikipedia