PIL.OT / DEVELOPMENT
PIL.OTv0.62.2
Magdalena Kmak argues that shame serves as a moral guide for international refugee protection while also being used to sustain racialised and gendered hierarchies within it. She addresses an emotion largely overlooked by research focused on compassion and fear, against states’ attempts to renegotiate principles including the right to seek asylum and non-refoulement.
Drawing on her own research and existing literature, Kmak identifies at least four roles for shame, shaming and shamelessness: grounding protection, pressing states to change policies, shifting shame for human rights violations onto victims, and shaping refugee experience and status determination. In credibility assessments, shame can both impede disclosure of persecution and become an expected indicator of it, overlooking cultural differences in emotional responses.
The role of shame, shaming and shamelessness in the foundations and implementation of refugee protection, including the right to seek asylum and non-refoulement.
Treating shame as an indicator of persecution can sit uneasily with its capacity to prevent disclosure. Kmak links this tension to credibility assessments and cultural differences in emotional responses.
Verfassungsblog · 2026
DOI 10.59704/e306f00f42748be3