Diplomatic Asylum: A Necessary Evil to the Protection of Human Rights

ABSTRACT The institution of a diplomatic asylum is one of the controversial subject of international law which has differentview among international jurists. A group of academicians contemplate the institution of asylum as a matter of violation of the right of sovereignty of the host Country and dissenting with the functions entrusted to the diplomatic mission. Others consider the asylum as the possibility of protecting the freedoms and lives of persons persecuted for keeping opposite political opinions specially on account of protection of human rights. The law of diplomatic asylum largely developed in Latin America which is based upon regional treaties but presently there is barely any regional restraint and is practiced by many states without any legal justification. Various states endure to accept high-profile persons into their embassies in violation of these international legal authorities. The issue of diplomatic asylum is still a very complex and there is an inconsistency between attitudes and practice that makes the issue of diplomatic asylum a vague one. Every new instance of protecting in the embassy or consulate brings many doubts and raises many questions regarding diplomatic asylum that what actually is the current position of diplomatic asylum in context to public international law, especially with reference to Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations, 1961, with other human right instruments or in the context of relevant case laws and on what basis it could be granted and what could be the possible consequences of such a protection. The present research paper attempts to find out answers to these questions and to determine the role of diplomatic asylum in the context of public international law