Parrhēsia and Credibility: The Sovereign of Refugee Status Determination

Abstract

This article is concerned with the correlation between credibility and the concept of sovereignty in international law and their relationship to truth. Empirically, the authors focus on the credibility assessment informing the refugee determination procedure operated by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The authors do not provide a rationalized explanation of credibility assessment in terms of a legal procedure turning on probative models of evidence. Instead, the authors attempt to draw out a concurrent phenomenon of credibility assessment, which tests the truth of what it means to be human. This is a political question that requires a consideration of the tension between personal sovereignty and territorial sovereignty and the process of political subjectivization that conditions that tension.