non-refoulement
Syllables: non-re·foule·ment/ˌnɒnɹəˈfuːlmɒ̃/US/ˌnɑnɹəˌfulˈmɑn/
non-refoulement noun: the principle that a person (particularly a refugee) should not be returned to an area (chiefly their country of origin) where they would face mistreatment.
Noun
non-refoulement (uncountable)
- The principle that a person (particularly a refugee) should not be returned to an area (chiefly their country of origin) where they would face mistreatment.
- In international law, there is a principle that is of paramount importance—the principle of non-refoulement (prohibition to return). The principle is applicable to any refugee, asylum-seeker or an alien who needs some form of shelter from the state whose control he/she is under. The non-refoulement...2008, Vladislava Stoyanova, “The Principle of Non-refoulement and the Right of Asylum-seekers to Enter State Territory”, in Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law, volume 3, number 1, Bay...
- Antonyms:
- refoulement
non-refoulement meaning in Arabic, Persian and Vietnamese
non-refoulement in Arabic
- principle that a person should not be returned to an area where they would face mistreatment
- عدم الإعادة القسرية
non-refoulement in Persian
- principle that a person should not be returned to an area where they would face mistreatment
- نان رفولمان
non-refoulement in Vietnamese
- principle that a person should not be returned to an area where they would face mistreatment
- luật không gửi trả
Antonyms of non-refoulement
Forms of non-refoulement
| alternative form | nonrefoulement |
|---|---|
| alternative form | non-refoulment |
Origin of non-refoulement
From non- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + refoulement. Refoulement is borrowed from French refoulement (“act of pushing something back (as gunpowder into a gun barrel, or water by a dam); act of water overflowing; forced relocation of a group of people; forced repatriation of asylum-seekers or refugees”), from refouler (“to cause to flow or turn back; to repress, suppress; to repulse; to trample on again”) (from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + fouler (“to impress, stamp; to trample, walk on; to mistreat, oppress”) (ultimately from Medieval Latin fullare (“to make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing, to full”), from Latin fullō (“one who fulls cloth, fuller”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“to blow; to inflate, swell”)) + -ment (suffix forming nouns from verbs, usually denoting resulting actions or states).
Questions about non-refoulement
- What does non-refoulement mean?
- Non-refoulement means the principle that a person (particularly a refugee) should not be returned to an area (chiefly their country of origin) where they would face mistreatment.
- What is non-refoulement in Arabic?
- Non-refoulement in Arabic is عدم الإعادة القسرية. See Non-refoulement meaning in Arabic.
- What part of speech is non-refoulement?
- Non-refoulement is a noun.
- How do you pronounce non-refoulement?
- Non-refoulement is pronounced /ˌnɒnɹəˈfuːlmɒ̃/ (UK).
Words near non-refoulement in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: non-refoulement (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-non-refoulement.wav.
Cite this entry: “non-refoulement.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/non-refoulement. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.