Cite as: 526 U. S. 415 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
We agree the U. N. Handbook provides some guidance in construing the provisions added to the INA by the Refugee Act. INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U. S., at 438-439, and n. 22. As we explained in Cardoza-Fonseca, "one of Congress' primary purposes" in passing the Refugee Act was to implement the principles agreed to in the 1967 United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Jan. 31, 1967, 19 U. S. T. 6224, T. I. A. S. No. 6577 (1968), to which the United States acceded in 1968. 480 U. S., at 436-437. The Protocol incorporates by reference Articles 2 through 34 of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 189 U. N. T. S. 150 (July 28, 1951), reprinted in 19 U. S. T., at 6259, 6264-6276. The basic withholding provision of § 1253(h)(1) parallels Article 33, which provides that "[n]o Contracting State shall expel or return ('refouler') a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion." Id., at 6276. The Convention, in a part incorporated by the Protocol, also places certain limits on the availability of this form of relief; as pertinent here, the Convention states that its provisions "shall not apply to any person with respect to whom there are serious reasons for considering that . . . he has committed a serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge prior to his admission to that country as a refugee." Convention Art. I(F)(b), 19 U. S. T., at 6263-6264. Paragraph 156 of the U. N. Handbook, the portion relied upon by the Court of Appeals, states that in applying the serious non-political crime provision of Convention Art. I(F)(b), "it is . . . necessary to strike a balance between the nature of the offence presumed to have been committed by the applicant and the degree of persecution feared . . . ."
The U. N. Handbook may be a useful interpretative aid, but it is not binding on the Attorney General, the BIA, or United States courts. "Indeed, the Handbook itself dis-
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