Institute of the right to asylum in the drafts of Constitutional Commission and Constitutional Meeting

The institute of the right to asylum is one of the most important instruments for the protection of human rights. According to the author, in post-war time, there is a transition from classical understanding of the right to asylum as the institute of protection against persecutions for political activity and beliefs (political asylum) inspired by bourgeois constitutions, to a broader understanding. The institute of the right to asylum gains all-democratic character, and crucial importance in its regulation belongs to international law. Constitutional foundations of the institute of right to asylum were a subject of discussions for draftspersons of the country Constitution. As the basis for Part 1, Article 63 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation 1993 was accepted the wording of Part 2, Article 19 of the draft of the Constitutional commission as the most concise one since it contains direct reference to the universally recognized norms of international law. At the same time during discussions of the draft Constitution of the country, other options for regulation of the constitutional foundations of the institute of right to asylum were proposed. For example, Article 28 of the Presidential project was devoted to the right to a political asylum. The Administration of Kursk region and A. I. Kazannik proposed to add words "political and public" to Part1, Article 28 after the words "for their" and to excluded the words "in favor of freedom". At a meeting in the government of Moscow, it was specified that it is more reasonable to use an accurate formula of the Convention on the status of refugees (Article 1 of the Convention): "the victims of persecutions on the basis of race, religion, nationality, belonging to a certain social group and political convictions". Following the results of discussion of the presented versions of amendments it was decided to return to the version of Part 2, Article 19 of the Constitutional commission draft instead of the wording of Part 1, Article 28 of the Presidential project, the former version being more flexible. Despite modern broad all-democratic understanding of the institute of right to asylum and the universal wording of Part 2, Article 19 of the draft of the Constitutional commission which dealt with the right to asylum in general, without reference to a political aspect, it was specified during subsequent meetings of the working commission on completion of the draft Constitution of the Russian Federation that the Russian Federation grants a political asylum. According to the author, the institute of right to asylum as the most important element of legal system of a democratic constitutional state must have a unified constitutional and legal basis providing protection to all categories of refugees according to international obligations of Russia. At the same time, the existence of distinctions between concepts "shelter" and "status of the refugee" in national legislation, distinctions in legal status and the procedure of granting the specified forms of protection does not contradict the Convention of 1951. Having established the minimum international standards in the field of legal protection of refugees, the Convention of 1951 created more favorable conditions, and regulations of the procedure for granting a shelter to the discretion of signatory states.

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