Canadian Refugee Procedure/Canada's international obligations and the interpretation of the Rules

International standards
One of the most significant obligations owed by States is non-refoulement, which prohibits them from returning refugees, and certain migrants, directly or indirectly to a country where they would be at risk of persecution or of particular, predefined, harms. A consequence of a State’s non-refoulement obligation is a ‘duty of independent inquiry’. Such a duty requires States to identify individuals in need of protection before returning or transferring them to a third country.

The UNHCR Handbook is considered highly influential in how refugee adjudication should be approached, even if its clauses are not, in and of themselves, law in Canada. The following comment about how the task of refugee status determination should be approached is instructive: "Since the examiner’s conclusion on the facts of the case and his personal impression of the applicant will lead to a decision that affects human lives, he must apply the criteria in a spirit of justice and understanding and his judgement should not, of course, be influenced by the personal consideration that the applicant may be an “undeserving case”."