The 9th International Refugee Law Seminar Series covers a range of topics related to refugee law and protection, and is presented by experts from a number of professions.

9th International Refugee Law Seminar Series

RLI 4th Annual Conference: Keynote presentations

Seminar Series: Humanitarian Accountability in Displacement Contexts

A series of seminars examining humanitarian accountability in displacement contexts, hosted by the Refugee Law Initiative at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. The series provides a forum for discussion open to academics, practitioners and those with an interest in humanitarian and forced displacement issues.

Humanitarian Accountability in Displacement Contexts Seminar Series

10th International Refugee Law Seminar Series (RLI-UNHCR)

Accountability to Affected Populations and Sensitisation Materials:
A collaboration with IRC Uganda Country Programme and UNHCR Uganda field office 

Identifying a need:

As part of the research study on Accountability to Affected Populations in Displacement Contexts, conducted by the Refugee Law Initiative (RLI), University of London, in collaboration with IRC Uganda, the RLI proposed developing client responsiveness sensitisation materials aimed at clients based in Uganda.

The aim of the sensitisation materials for clients is to increase awareness of the Interagency Feedback Referral Response Mechanism (FRRM) among affected populations served by the IRC, UNHCR and partner organisations in Uganda. Discussions with the IRC Uganda country office and UNHCR based in Uganda, and research conducted by RLI with IRC Tanzania indicated that many clients are not aware of feedback channels available to them. Greater awareness of such channels will strengthen the client responsive approach of the country office and Uganda humanitarian response overall.

Why we proposed audio podcasts?:

The RLI proposed audio podcast as format for the sensitisation material. As reported in our research on IRC Uganda Client Responsiveness during the pandemic, IRC Uganda invested significant resources in communication with clients by expanding radio shows and Boda Boda broadcasts. This proved a strong basis to reach communities, and increased the effectiveness of information communication by minimising the risk inherent in pictorial images that the message may be unclear or not interpreted correctly.

Reliance on text-based communication in humanitarian settings may be problematic. While printed materials such as leaflets, posters, banners and notice-boards are useful to share and disseminate information, these materials assume that people are literate and mobile and, for this reason, may not be accessible to everyone. Given their storytelling traditions, many communities also prefer listening to audio messages. This makes audio one of the communities’ main preferred source of information and a trusted channel.

Content:

The messages have been developed on the following themes:
•	‘How to provide feedback’
•	‘Why giving feedback is important’
•	‘Zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse’
•	‘Fraud and corruption’
•	‘Know your rights’

Some of these messages are developed with one voice explaining how FRRM works, the importance of affected populations’ feedback for the relevance and quality of humanitarian programming, and how communities can respond to cases of fraud, corruption or sexual exploitation and abuse. Some of the messages have been developed as a dialogue between two people. This was deemed as potentially more culturally appropriate.

The pilot will be useful to also understand the format of messages preferred by communities (re: one voice as opposed to the use of a dialogue and storytelling).

The English versions of the podcasts are available here:
•	How to provide feedback
•	Why giving feedback is important 1 (dialogue)
•	Why giving feedback is important 2
•	Zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse
•	Fraud and corruption 1
•	Fraud and corruption 2 (dialogue)
•	Know your rights (dialogue)

Podcasts in Aringa, Lugbara, Achioli (Luo), Juba Arabic and Kakwa are available upon request from RLI@sas.ac.uk.

How To Provide Feedback

Wednesday 12th October 2022, 6pm (IALS)
“Refugee Protection “Here” or “There”: Reflections on a Non-ideal World”
Professor David Owen – University of Southampton

Policymakers in states of the Global North are in the privileged position of having a genuine ethical choice concerning whether to devote their resources to providing refugee protection in their territory (for example, by enabling safe passage of refugees to their borders and offering generous resettlement opportunities) or to prioritize resourcing refugee protection in the Global South. For these policymakers the question ‘Should we protect refugees here or there?’ posed in this global context represents a real, and not merely a notional, ethical challenge.

Drawing on a recent paper co-authored with Alex Aleinikoff, this presentation focuses primarily on the ethical challenge confronted by the conscientious policymaker in the Global North concerning where (and how) to support refugee protection. A secondary focus is the ethical challenge faced by conscientious policymakers in the Global South in relation to the global context and the issues confronted both Northern and Southern policymakers in their distinct regional contexts. Against proponents of ‘protection there’, it is argued that a greater mix of strategies for refugee protection is both possible and necessary.

David Owen is Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the University of Southampton. His work is split between studies of 19th and 20th century French and German philosophy, and work on the ethics of migration. His most recent books are: What do we owe to refugees? (Polity, 2020); and (with Natalia Cintra & Pia Rigirozzi) Displacement, Human Rights, and Sexual and Reproductive Health (BUP, forthcoming 2023).

Refugee Protection 'Here' or 'There': Reflections on a Non-Ideal World

Tuesday 8th November 2022, 6pm (IALS)
“Local Integration: A Durable Solution in need of Reinvigoration?”
Dr Nicholas Maple - Refugee Law Initiative, University of London

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Local integration has long been framed as the ‘forgotten’ durable solution to refugee displacement, evidenced by the reluctance of governments across the globe to grant refugees new citizenship. This
presentation goes further by arguing that local integration as a durable solution has not merely been forgotten, but deliberately avoided at the national, regional and international level. As a result, its status as a realistic durable solution for most of the world’s refugees is now in question.

Based on recent work co-authored with Dr Lucy Hovil, this talk will examine the ways in which states seek to evade local integration: from the multiple tactics used by wealthier governments to elude responsibility; to how countries hosting the greatest numbers of refugees (such as those in Africa) have allowed significant numbers of refugees into their territory but have then maintained a short-term approach to hosting. As a result, a mix of global, national, and local processes and forces have effectively conspired to diminish local integration to the point that it has all but vanished from the political arena.

The implications for refugee populations are profound. While refugees continue to find ways to negotiate their own access to communities and labour markets, this is often done against national,
regional, and international policies rather than with them. Ultimately, by highlighting its value as a durable solution, while showing that there is almost uniform acceptance by states and international
organisations working on protection concerns that it is no longer politically viable, this presentation hopes to aid in restarting an urgent conversation about the value of local integration and how it can be reinvigorated.

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Dr Nicholas Maple started in October 2022 as a Lecturer at the Refugee Law Initiative. Previously he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. His current work looks at urban displacement and mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa, including the relationship between refugee camps/settlements and urban displacement of refugees.

He has experience working in the field as an advocate for organisations such as Asylum Access, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and UNHCR.

Local Integration: A Durable Solution in need of Reinvigoration?

Tuesday 6th December 2022, 6pm (IALS)
“Can Labour Migration be a Solution for Refugees? Some Observations from the Gulf Arab States”
Dr Jinan Bastaki – Center for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford

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Recently, there has been some exploration of labour mobility policies in the context of refugees as a way of local country integration, with some examples from Africa and Latin America. Building on these examples, this paper explores labour mobility as a potential solution for refugees in states that are not party to the 1951 Convention, in particular in the Gulf Arab States. Many of the countries making up the Gulf Cooperation Council provide substantial sums of aid to neighbouring countries supporting refugees, but have not enacted any local laws or resettlement policies themselves.

Yet, these states rely in large part on expatriate labour and are indeed made up of majority noncitizens, with forced migrants hidden within the population at large. For example, some Syrians who have been able to obtain work visas have preferred to go to the UAE rather than seek refuge in other neighbouring countries. Some positive initiatives, such as a 2018 Amnesty Law in the UAE, which created a specific category of residency permits for those from countries suffering war and natural disasters, have ensured that de facto refugees are protected against refoulement in the event that they lose their residency. 
However, this was a temporary measure with few protections aside from the ability to legally stay and the waiving of fines. In order for labour migration as a solution for refugees to work, there needs to be better guarantees and minimum protections, such as schooling for children and healthcare, as well as labour protections. Here, we can see reluctance from States to commit to standards that can ensure that refugees are protected.
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Dr Jinan Bastaki is an international law scholar who focuses on human rights, refugee law, and citizenship. She is particularly interested in the lived experiences of those impacted by the law, how the law regulates access and belonging, and what those experiences reveal about the law itself. She was recently a Visiting Professor of Legal Studies at NYU Abu Dhabi and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford's Center for Socio-Legal Studies.

Can Labour Migration be a Solution for Refugees? Some Observations from the Gulf Arab States

Tuesday 14th March 2023, 6pm (online)
“Do Today’s Resettlement Practices Offer Refugees a Durable Solution?”
Dr Meltem Ineli-Ciger - Associate Professor, Suleyman Demirel University Faculty of Law

Resettlement is regarded as a permanent or durable solution and, as advocated by the UNHCR, resettled refugees get a permanent settlement with the opportunity for eventual citizenship. Is this still the case? No structured international legal regime governing resettlement exists. Neither the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees nor any other international instrument explicitly obliges states to provide durable solutions to refugees, including resettlement. This means states retain sovereign competence to decide who and how many persons to resettle and which status persons will receive once resettlement. The status granted to refugees and other resettled persons in the resettlement state and if and when this status can be withdrawn is closely related to whether a certain resettlement practice offers a durable solution.

The European Commission Proposal for a Regulation establishing a Union Resettlement Framework and amending Regulation (EU) No 516/2014 foresaw that resettled persons are to be granted either refugee status or subsidiary protection status in the European Union. Although the Proposal has yet to be adopted, the Commission, as part of the new Pact on Migration and Asylum presented in 2020, called for its swift adoption. There are other recent developments that make one question the extent to which today’s resettlement practices offer refugees a durable solution. A considerable number of resettled refugees receive complementary and temporary protection statuses in Denmark whereas, most resettled Afghans evacuated or resettled to the United States following the Taliban takeover have been granted humanitarian parole but not permanent residency. This seminar will review recent state practices on resettlement and discuss whether resettlement is still a permanent or durable solution in view of these practices.

Dr Meltem Ineli Ciger is a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and an Associate Professor at the Suleyman Demirel University Faculty of Law in Turkey. She is a member of the International Journal of Refugee Law’s Editorial Board, Odysseus Network, and a research affiliate of the Refugee Law Initiative. She has acted as an expert, consultant, and trainer for the EU Commission, Council of Europe, EMN, ICMPD, and IOM. She works on international, European and Turkish refugee and migration law and human rights law.

Do Today’s Resettlement Practices Offer Refugees a Durable Solution?

Session One: Wednesday 3 April 2024

“The contemporary role of the Global Refugee Regime in Africa” 

This workshop will explore the contemporary role of the Global Refugee Regime in Africa. It is linked to the launch of a new Special Issue of the Refugee Survey Quarterly(Opens in new window), with several of the authors presenting their work. The workshop will investigate the role of global and regional frameworks and initiatives, and how they interact with protection needs and mobility on the ground. It will also act as a foundation for further exploration and discussion on key themes in later sessions.

Speakers: Prof Jo Vearey, Prof Loren Landau, Dr Kudakwashe Vanyoro, Elena Habersky, Amira Hetaba-Sabry, and Dr Tamuka Chekero

Discussant: Prof Loren Landau, University of Oxford

Chair: Prof Jo Vearey, The African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand

Refocus:The contemporary role of the Global Refugee Regime in Africa - 3 Apr 2024

Session Two: Wednesday 10 April 2024

“Emerging Regional (Forced) Migration Patterns in Africa Part 1: Responses to Coups and Conflict” 

This workshop will explore responses to the recent coups and emerging conflicts on the continent, and the impact these developments are having on displaced and local community populations.

Speakers: Dr Alain Tiga Ouedraogo, Dr Stephanie Schwartz, Allehone Abebe

Chair: Dr Mary Boatemaa Setrana

Refocus: Emerging Regional (Forced) Migration Patterns in Africa Part 1, 10 Apr 2024

Session Three: Wednesday 17 April 2024

“Emerging Regional (Forced) Migration Patterns in Africa Part 2: Evolving Migration Governance” 

This workshop will investigate the role of supra-national actors in responding to emerging patterns of displacement and new cross-continental migration routes.

Speakers: Dr Opportuna Kweka, Sarah Doyel and Prof Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Chair: Dr Nicholas Maple

Refocus: Emerging Regional (Forced) Migration Patterns in Africa Part 2 - 17 Apr 2024

Week 4: Wednesday 24 April 2024

This final workshop will look to possible solutions and new initiatives that may suggest ways forward in addressing/approaches to forced migration in Africa today. A key focus will be ground-up approaches to solutions that incorporate refugee voices and their agency/mobility.

Speakers: Dr Hanno Brankamp, Dr Abebaw Minaye, Theodore Mbazumutima and Jean Marie Ishimwe

Discussant:
Dr Lucy Hovil, Refugee Law Initiative, University of London

Chair:
Dr Catherine K. Musuva, The African Centre for Migration & Society, the University of the Witwatersrand

Refocus: ‘New’ Regionalism, Transnationalism, and the Search for Solutions - 24 Apr 2024

This session addresses pertinent conceptual and legal aspects of how the international protection rules expressed by refugee law and human rights law apply to claims relating to disaster contexts and climate change in the country of origin, including:

- Is international protection the appropriate framework to apply?
- How can we best conceptualise protection risks in disaster contexts?
- How do refugee definitions apply to claims based on these facts?
- When does human rights law prevent removal to such disaster situations?

Chaired by ⁠Jocelyn Perry⁠ (Refugees International and University of Oxford), the session will draw on the Refugee Law Initiative Declaration on International Protection in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change, released in June 2024, and the accompanying background research paper published in the prestigious International Journal of Refugee Law. ⁠Prof David Cantor⁠  will be presenting, with time allocated for questions and answers at the end of the session.

The RLI promulgates a Declaration on International Protection every two years. The Declaration draws on the refugee law expertise of the global research networks hosted at RLI. Its principal audience includes refugee status decision-makers, judges, lawyers, policymakers, scholars and others.

This event was recorded on 30 October 2024

Workshop on International Protection, Disasters and Climate Change in Africa Podcast

Coloniality and the racialisation of refugee protection: Reflections on asylum law and policy in South America and the UK

This high-profile event brought together prominent academics, UN officials, and leading Sudanese advocates to address one of the most pressing humanitarian crises of the 21st Century. Hosted in the distinguished setting of the new Warburg auditorium, chaired by a leading journalist, and building on recent media engagement, the event brought new insights to this urgent displacement emergency. 
Sudan is currently the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, characterised by mass displacement, intensifying conflict, economic meltdown, and inadequate aid for the local population. The latest outbreak of conflict began in April 2023 in Khartoum and quickly spread, with warnings now of genocide in the western region of Darfur. This compounds an already volatile situation of domestic political and economic instability in the country.

The crisis has forced millions of people to flee their homes - around 12 million by June 2024. Some have crossed borders, mostly seeking refuge in neighbouring states, while the vast majority - over 10 million people - are now displaced within Sudan. This makes Sudan the largest displacement crisis in the world. Almost 25 million people - more than half of Sudan’s population - are currently in need of humanitarian aid. Yet global attention remains elsewhere. 

This public event drew new attention to the issue, exploring how the country has reached crisis point, the key displacement challenges, the long-term impacts on Sudan as a country, and what can be done by countries in the region and beyond to address them. 

Chaired by Dr Lucy Hovil, RLI Senior Research Associate

Panellists 
- Radhouane Nouicer,Designated Expert on Sudan of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 
- Kholood Khair, Sudanese political analyst and the founding director of Confluence Advisory
- Professor Sharath Srinivasan, Department of Politics and International Studies, Cambridge University 

Recorded on: 10 December 2024


Displacement, War and The Future of Sudan Podcast

This session is part of the ⁠⁠15th International Refugee Law Seminar Series ⁠⁠convened by the ⁠⁠Refugee Law Initiative⁠⁠ in collaboration with ⁠⁠Refugee History.⁠⁠

The exodus of Indochinese ‘boat people’ from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos spanned more than two decades from the 1970s to the 1990s. This movement of over 3 million refugees via dangerous maritime routes elicited a global response, including the Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) for Indochinese Refugees which was the first international attempt to introduce region-wide processing of asylum seekers. This session explores the impact of maritime displacement on displaced communities and evaluates the potential of regional initiatives such as the CPA to develop our understanding of the potentials of ‘regional processing’ today.  

Recorded on 28 February 2025


Maritime refugee journeys: Solidarity, regional processing and saving lives at sea

This seminar is part of the  organised by the .

Climate change is a global crisis. A principal concern is how it will shape patterns of disasters linked to climate-related hazards, such as storms, flooding and sea-level rise; and the impact this will have in terms of displacement and other human mobility.

But what can the law do? As the recent ICJ Advisory Opinion on “Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change” makes clear, existing international law requires States to take action. But that Opinion deals only briefly with what is required under the international law relating to refugees and displacement.

Responding to this question, the seminar asks: What do current and emerging challenges of climate change, disasters and similar crises mean for refugee law? How can refugee law be applied to this new global context? Will we see a breakdown or development of refugee law?

Speakers on this topic will include: 

- Prof David Cantor, Refugee Law Initiative
- Dr Matthew Scott, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
- Harj Narulla, Doughty Street Chambers

Recorded on 25 September 2025

Fit for the future? Climate change, global crises and the capacity of refugee law

From Frontex to the European Border and Coast Guard: Responsibility for human rights violations at the borders.

ABSTRACT:

In the midst of turbulent times for Europe’s immigration and asylum system, the institution that most embodies the image of border management is the EU agency Frontex, which has recently been replaced by the European Border and Coast Guard with a strengthened mandate and enhanced tasks and responsibilities. 
The agency together with the coastal Member States conducts joint operations for the surveillance of the external borders. These operations are inherently sensitive to violations of refugee and human rights and once these sensitivities materialize into real violations, the multiplicity of actors concerned raises questions as to who is responsible. 
This presentation aims at providing useful insight into the role and the work of Frontex at the EU borders and inspire an interesting discussion. 

SPEAKER:

Mariana Gkliati is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Immigration Law of Leiden University, and Visiting Fellow at the Refugee Law Initiative. She specializes in human rights protection in Europe and European Migration Law. Her doctoral research focuses on legal accountability and effective legal protection of individuals against human rights violations in the area of asylum and immigration attributed to the EU agency Frontex (European Border and Coast Guard Agency). 
Her work experience is shared among Vienna, Athens, and Leiden. She has previously worked at the EU Fundamental Rights Agency in the area of asylum, migration, and borders and as a legal case reporter and commentator for Oxford Reports on International Law database. In her early carrier she has worked as a journalist and assisted voluntarily the NGO AITIMA, which provides legal and social aid to asylum seekers and refugees.

RLI Public Lecture: From Frontex to the European Border and Coast Guard

Refugee Law Initiative's 9th International Refugee Law Seminar Series
Speaker: Daniel Howden, Refugees Deeply
Date: 7 November 2018

Abstract:
Much of the policy born of Europe's recent migration obsession relies on strained inversions of the truth. Removing rescue ships from the Mediterranean saves lives at sea. Flows of refugees and migrants are created by transnational smugglers.

This contorted logic is travelling south, along with Europe's external borders. Thus stopping the northward flow of people is actually about insuring the internal security of the countries they transit. 

Seen through this lens, Niger is the European Union's “model” for how other transit countries should manage migration. Under pressure from European leaders, Niger has outlawed movement of non-nationals north of the desert city of Agadez. This cooperation in disrupting one of the main northbound routes into Libya has elevated Niger into the single largest recipient of EU development aid.It is hailed by the EU's high representative for foreign affairs as "a success story that we now want to replicate at regional level."

But it can be hard for anyone outside the governing elite in Niger to discern where the success lies, particularly among the refugees, migrants and Nigeriens who have to live with the consequences. The world's second poorest country is already beset by two deteriorating regional refugee crises in its southeast and west, and it has become a reluctant way station for the tiny minority of refugees and migrants the UN Refugee Agency has been able to evacuate from Libya. 

Meanwhile in Agadez, significant numbers of Sudanese, many of them veterans of multiple refugee camps and Libya's internal conflicts have gathered. They are joined there by tens of thousands of West African migrants forcibly ejected from Algeria and dumped in the desert for international agencies to collect, process and send home. 

A critical examination of Niger offers insight into what this model actually means for those in search of international protection and for the countries whose economies have long depended on human mobility.

Niger: The Making of a Model Transit Country

Refugee Law Initiative's 9th International Refugee Law Seminar Series
Speaker: Professor Pene Mathew, Griffith University
Date: 19 November 2018

Abstract:

The landmark New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants signalled a better, collective response to refugees and migrants. It envisages the adoption of two global compacts on migration and refugees that will provide the basis for more equitable responsibility sharing for refugees and a form of migration governance that facilitates safe, orderly and regular migration.

Rejecting the unilateral deterrence measures prevalent in the Global North, the international community seeks instead to preserve the right to seek asylum, financing refugee protection in a way that meets both humanitarian and development needs and providing more regular migration pathways for people on the move. The conceptual vehicle driving the change in approach is a reframing of the arrival of refugees and migrants as an opportunity for development, not just a development challenge. The Declaration reiterates the catch-cry of the Agenda for Sustainable Development and the World Humanitarian Summit core commitment to ‘leave no one behind’.

This seminar paper explores the approach of the final draft of the Global Compact on Refugees – due to be endorsed at the current session of the UN General Assembly – to its primary task of providing ‘a basis for predictable and equitable burden and responsibility-sharing’. Notwithstanding the disappointment expressed by some about the level of ambition of the Compact during its drafting, a careful reading of the final draft reveals the outlines of a firmer mechanism for responsibility sharing that is to be constructed in the future. The paper poses a deeper question concerning the viability of development as the critical vehicle for change.

Speaker:

Penelope Mathew is a research professor at Griffith Law School, where she served as Dean from June 2014 to June 2018. Her primary area of expertise is international refugee law. Immediately before her appointment as the Griffith Law School Dean, she held a research chair at the Herbert & Valmae Freilich Foundation at The Australian National University. Prior to that, she was a visiting professor and interim Director of the Program Refugee and Asylum Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she convened the 5th Michigan Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law.

From 2006-2008, Pene was a legal adviser to the ACT Human Rights Commission, where she conducted the Human Rights audit of the ACT's Correctional Facilities. She has also taught at the Australian National University College of Law and Melbourne Law School, and is a past editor-in-chief of the Australian Yearbook of International Law. Her most recent book, co-authored with Tristan Harley, is Refugees, Regionalism and Responsibility (Elgar, 2016).

Leaving No One Behind: A Look at the Global Compact on Refugees

Refugee Law Initiative's 9th International Refugee Law Seminar Series
Speaker: Alison Harvey, Barrister, No5 Chambers
Date: 23 January 2019

Abstract:

Is it time to stop putting Refugee Status Determination (RSD) at the heart of the refugee response? What scope is there for using prima facie recognition of refugee status, in line with the UNHCR's eleventh guideline on international protection, in OECD countries such as the UK? Taking a balance sheet approach, this talk will disentangle prima facie recognition from temporary protection and consider its relationship with a resettlement response and with definitions of a refugee, with reference to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Convention governing the specific aspects of refugee problems in Africa and the Cartagena Declaration.

Speaker:
Alison Harvey has returned to practice from the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association where she was General Secretary, then Legal Director. She trains, lectures and writes widely on immigration, asylum, nationality and human rights law.  She is a contributor to Fransman’s British Nationality Law and to Macdonald’s Immigration law and Practice.

She has worked in the UK and overseas, representing clients before the Home Office, tribunals and courts, including working at the Refugee Legal Centre, Asylum Aid, and South West Law. She has worked with refugees, the internally displaced and the trafficked for the UN in West Africa, Darfur and Azerbaijan.  She has worked extensively on the development of immigration law and policy in the UK, advising those lobbying on, and challenging, a total of nine immigration Acts (to date) as well as on the development of the points-based system and the immigration aspects of Brexit.  Recent training credits include ‘The Immigration Act 2016’, ‘Nationality Law is Fun’ and ‘Advanced Naturalisation’ for the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association and ‘Trafficking: identifying and assisting victims’ for Free Movement.

She is co-chair of the Trustees of Kalayaan, working with overseas domestic workers, and led for Kalayaan in its work with its legal team for its intervention in the Supreme Court in the Reyes case. She has been appointed Special Advisor to the Joint Committee on Human Rights for its enquiry Detention of Windrush Generation.

Is it Time to Stop Putting Status Determination at the Heart of the Refugee Response?

Refugee Law Initiative's 9th International Refugee Law Seminar Series
Speaker: Roger Zetter, Emeritus Professor of Refugee Studies, University of Oxford
Date: 2 April 2019

Abstract:

The paper is in two parts. The first sketches the emergence of the humanitarian: development nexus (HDN). Emphasising the development-led characteristics of this paradigm, it locates this in the context of the reformulation of international responses to forced displacement embodied in the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) and the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF). The second part considers the structural determinants and interests which are driving the international community’s engagement with the nexus. It theorises this emerging paradigm by first acknowledging its neo-liberal economic ambitions, but principally by locating it in an approach to development theory made popular in the 1970s-1990s through the work of writers such as Frank, Amin, Escobar and more recently de Soto - the core–periphery/metropole-dependency model of economic dualism. I argue that the nexus has remarkable parallels with the model of economic dualism and how we might theorise the current refugee response regime which subordinates impacted countries to an economic development and containment process applied by the advanced ‘imperial’ donor countries of the global north. The limited capacity of the ‘empire to fight back’ concludes the paper.



Speaker:

Roger Zetter is Emeritus Professor of Refugee Studies, retiring as the fourth Director of the Refugee Studies Centre in September 2011. His long association with the RSC commenced in 1988 as Founding Editor of the Journal of Refugee Studies, published by Oxford University Press, a position held until 2001.

Following undergraduate studies at Cambridge he completed his DPhil at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex; this research on the Greek–Cypriot Refugees from 1974 was the foundation for a career-long engagement with questions of institutional and bureaucratic power and the labelling of refugees and other categories of forcibly displaced people. In an academic career spanning over 35 years and with regional expertise in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and the Middle East, his teaching, research, publications and consultancy have included all stages of the ‘refugee and displacement cycle’.

He has been a consultant to many governments and international organisations - UNHCR, UNDP, UNHABITAT, UNFPA, World Bank, ILO, IOM, IFRC, Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation, OXFAM and Brookings-Bern Project - and the governments of UK, NZ, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland and the EC; research funders include ESRC, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, MPI.

Recent research includes: protracted refugee situations (Norwegian MFA); climate and environmental change and population displacement (MacArthur Foundation, UNHCR, Swiss MFA, Norwegian MFA); development-led responses to the economic costs and impacts of forced migration, and labour market access for refugees (World Bank, Danish MFA, EC, ILO); protection and forced displacement (Swiss Federal Commission for Migration, Swiss Federal Department for Foreign Affairs, Migration Policy Institute); framing humanitarian principles (IOM).

He has written over 35 peer reviewed papers, six books, over 20 book chapters, 15 major research reports and numerous op. eds. His 1991 Journal of Refugee Studies paper, ‘Labelling refugees: forming and transforming a bureaucratic identity’ is one of the most widely cited in refugee studies. For the centenary of Oxford University Press Journals, the paper was selected as one of the 100 most influential papers published over the previous century.

The Humanitarian-Development Nexus: A Political Economy Approach

Refugee Law Initiative's 9th International Refugee Law Seminar Series
Speaker: Alex Aleinikoff, Director of Zolberg Institute, The New School
Date: 14 March 2019

Abstract:

The international refugee regime is broken. Too many people remain refugees for too long, as states in the global North have cut resettlement programs and adopted policies to deter asylum-seekers while conflicts causing flight go unresolved. To repair and reform the current system, The Arc of Protection (co-authored by T. Alexander Aleinikoff and Leah Zamore) suggests a new focus on refugee rights, autonomy, and mobility and attention to the role that development actors can play in responding to refugee situations. Serious changes are  needed at the level of structures and institutions, especially when it comes to global responsibility-sharing.  These changes are unlikely to be made by states, who have watched over the decline of the refugee protection system.  Reform will require new actors and ultimately political action.

Speaker:

Alex Aleinikoff is University Professor, and has served as Director of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility since January 2017. He received a J.D. from the Yale Law School and a B.A. from Swarthmore College.

Alex has written widely in the areas of immigration and refugee law and policy, transnational law, citizenship, race, and constitutional law. He is currently at work on a book tentatively titled, The Arc of Protection: Reforming the International Refugee Regime. His book Semblances of Sovereignty: The Constitution, the State, and American Citizenship was published by Harvard University Press in 2002. Alex is a co-author of leading legal casebooks on immigration law and forced migration.

Before coming to The New School, Alex served as United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees (2010-15) and was a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he also served as dean and Executive Vice President of Georgetown University. He was co-chair of the Immigration Task Force for President Barack Obama’s transition team in 2008. From 1994 to 1997, he served as the general counsel, and then executive associate commissioner for programs, at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

Alex was inducted into the American Academy of Arts of Sciences in 2014.

The Arc of Protection: Reforming the International Refugee Regime

Seminar Series: Humanitarian Accountability in Displacement Contexts
Speaker: Nick van Pragg, Executive Director and Founder, Ground Truth Solutions
Date: 28 March 2019

Abstract:

The humanitarian system is challenged by rising demand for its services, as increasing numbers of people are affected by crisis and disasters, while its approach is rooted in the supply-driven paradigm of the last century. The traditional approaches to the provision of assistance and protection continue to prevail despite successive attempts at reform.  Nick van Praag set up Ground Truth Solutions with the goal of encouraging aid agencies and donors to adopt an approach to humanitarian action that is more responsive to the lived experience of refugees and displaced people. In this session, he will describe how his organisation is working to enable better humanitarian action in places as disparate as Afghanistan and Uganda, and how it is faring in a system that is steeped in the status quo. 



Speaker: 

Nick van Praag is Executive Director of Ground Truth Solutions, an organisation he set up in 2012 to encourage moves towards a more responsive and effective humanitarian system. GTS’s methodology enables affected people to have their views included in the way humanitarian organisations respond to crises. The GTS team is now working with the UN, INGOs and the Red Cross movement in some 20 countries. Activities range from setting up a common feedback system in the Caribbean in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria to assisting the OECD DAC to track the impact of humanitarian action in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Haiti, Lebanon, Uganda, Somalia, and Uganda. 

Nick’s previous career includes a decade at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and more than 20 years at the World Bank. His interest in promoting better ways of engaging with people affected by humanitarian disasters stems from his conviction that including the perspective of ordinary people can transform the way the humanitarian and development systems work. Nick is British and lives in Vienna, Austria. He studied in France, Italy, the U.K. and the United States.

How to Make the Humanitarian System Fit-for-purpose?: A bottom-up approach

Seminar Series: Humanitarian Accountability in Displacement Contexts
Speaker: Dorothea Hilhorst, Professor of Humanitarian Aid and Reconstruction at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam
Date: 4 April 2019

Abstract: 
Accountability in humanitarian action is a hot topic. The 2016 World Humanitarian Summit called for more vigorous accountability, with reference to the Core Humanitarian Standard that has been launched a year earlier.  An assumed lack of accountability was further catapulted in public attention with the events publicised in February 2018 about sex parties and other forms of sexual abuse in the sector.
This lecture will elaborate the history and meaning of accountability in humanitarian aid. With reference to a study in Myanmar, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, it will discuss the current state of affairs.
After this, the lecture will explore what is required to bring accountability to the next level. One of the question to address is whether a humanitarian ombudsman is needed to advance accountability. 

Speaker: 

Dorothea Hilhorst is professor of Humanitarian Aid and Reconstruction at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research concerns aid-society relations in humanitarian crises and recovery, with research programmes in a large variety of crisis-affected settings. Books include People, Aid and Institutions in Socio-Economic Recovery. Facing Fragilities (2016); and The Real World of NGOs: Discourse, Diversity and Development. (2003).

Taking Humanitarian Accountability to the Next Level

Distinguished Keynote speech from Professor Elena Fiddian Qasmiyeh (Professor in Migration and Refugee Studies, and Co-Director of the Migration Research Unit; Coordinator of UCL's Refuge in a Moving World Research Network). 

Presented on 5 June 2019 at the Refugee Law Initiative's 4th Annual Conference, 'Rethinking the "Regional" in Refugee Law and Policy'.

South-South Humanitarian Responses to Displacement: Views From the Middle East

Inaugural lecture of Professor David James Cantor (Director of the Refugee Law Initiative).

Presented on 4 June 2019 as part of the RLI's 4th Annual Conference 'Rethinking the "Regional" in Refugee Law and Policy'.

Are Refugees Special?

Distinguished Keynote speech from Professor Vicent Chetail (Founding Director of the Global Migration Centre and Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies).

Presented on 3 June 2019 at the Refugee Law Initiative's 4th Annual Conference, 'Rethinking the "Regional" in Refugee Law and Policy'.

The Common European Asylum System 20 Years after the Tampere Summit: From Cooperation to Crisis?

Seminar Series: Humanitarian Accountability in Displacement Contexts
Speaker: Dr Naohiko Omata (Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford)
Date: 13 June 2019

Abstract: 

This presentation explores key considerations for conducting research involving refugee populations, with a focus on issues relating to accountability and research ethics. Drawing upon my extensive fieldwork experience in East Africa, I investigate the ways in which the phenomena of ‘over-researched’ and ‘under-researched’ refugee populations can impact the frustration and despair felt by refugee participants in research. 

 In some of my recent field sites, I have noticed increasing expressions of so-called ‘research fatigue’ from certain groups of refugees, which they attribute to the high volume of academics, aid organisations, students, and/or journalists that frequently request to conduct ‘research’ with them. However, due to the notable absence of any concrete benefits from participation, such ‘over-researched’ groups can become disillusioned about the purpose and impacts of ‘research’ - and do not hide their mistrust of researchers. On the other hand, refugee groups that are ‘under-researched’ have a sense that they remain under the radar and express frustration that their voices are not able to be heard in global arenas. Oftentimes the reason for this divide is that under-researched groups are de facto viewed as ‘policy-irreverent’ refugees although in many cases these refugees in fact have hidden, unaddressed challenges and vulnerabilities. 

I argue that both of these phenomena are due to limited consideration of accountability and ethics with refugee populations by researchers and that if these issues are left unaddressed, the credibility of the research community will be significantly undermined in future. I conclude the presentation with some practical suggestions for researchers and humanitarian actors to improve accountability and ethical research practices when working with refugee populations.


Speaker: 

Dr Naohiko Omata is a Senior Research Officer at the Refugee Studies Centre in the Department of International Development, University of Oxford. He has been leading the large-scale multi-country research programme entitled Refugee Economies which focuses on economic outcomes for refugees and host populations in East Africa. Naohiko received his PhD in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, where he subsequently taught in Development Studies. He has also worked as a practitioner and consultant for UNDP, UNHCR, and international and local NGOs in Sub-Saharan African countries. He has published widely on refugee economic lives based on extensive research in Sub-Saharan Africa. His book, The Myth of Self-Reliance, was recently short-listed for the BSA/BBC Ethnography Award (2018).

Revisiting Accountability of Humanitarian Actors and Researchers: Lessons from field-research

Panel Discussion: Future Challenges in Refugee Protection - Movements and Responses

Abstract:

Debates about refugees tend to be oriented to short-term exigencies. What happens, though, if we switch our focus to the long-term, gaze into the crystal ball and try to predict the future? How might such debates play out in the next 25 years? Setting the scene for the rest of the series, the three speakers in this panel session will each offer a speculative view (in 15 minutes) of the future, drawing on their respective areas of present-day expertise: Professor Nando Sigona (refugee movements and trends), Professor Richard Black (politics and climate), Rossella Pagliuchi-Lor (UNHCR perspective).



Speakers:

Professor Nando Sigona (University of Birmingham) is a social scientist with over fifteen years research and teaching experience in migration, refugee, citizenship and ethnic studies. He is Deputy Director of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) and a Research Associate at the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre.

Professor Richard Black is Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham.  An academic geographer and Professor of International Development, he has been a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences since 2012.

Rossella Pagliuchi-Lor took up her post as UNHCR’s Representative to the UK in December 2018. Prior to this she had served two years as Director for External Relations at UNHCR‘s Headquarters in Geneva. Ms Pagliuchi-Lor has over 30 years of experience in refugee and humanitarian work, and has served UNHCR in a diverse country contexts, including Pakistan, Nepal, Iraq, Kenya, Belgium, Hungary and Italy. Ms. Pagliuchi-Lor holds a Master’s degree in Political Science (International Relations) from the University ‘La Sapienza’ in Rome, Italy.
_________________________________

The International Refugee Law Seminar Series, sponsored by the Refugee Law Initiative at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, provides a public space for discussion, promotion and dissemination of research between academics, practitioners, students and others with an interest in the refugee and forced migration field.

The 10th International Refugee Law Seminar Series is held jointly with UNHCR to present discussion and analysis of key issues in refugee law and policy.

This series will explore the future of refugee protection in a  global community. It will frame those discussions within the current 'blueprint' of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). Bringing together a range of speakers from academic, policy and lived experience, the series will present varied perspectives on the development of refugee protection and promote the visibility of, and engagement with, the GCR within UK academic and public audiences.

Photograph © UNHCR/Sebastian Rich

Panel Discussion: Future Challenges in Refugee Protection - Movement and Responses

'Is Return the Preferred Solution for Refugees?'

Abstract:

Voluntary return is often hailed as the preferred solution to displacement. The Global Compact on Refugees, for example, states that “Voluntary repatriation in conditions of safety and dignity remains the preferred solution in the majority of refugee situations.” However, reasons for “preferring” return are rarely examined in detail, and given that returnees regularly face violence and impoverishment, many are understandably sceptical of this claim. Focusing on the right of return – the key principle underpinning repatriation movements – this talk identifies key obstacles to refugee repatriation. It then explores four interlinked senses in which return may be morally valuable and in some cases even normatively preferable as a durable solution for refugees: first, that the right of return may serve as a means of upholding housing, land and property rights; second, that it may affirm and advance the equal rights of all citizens; third, that it embodies opposition to ethnic cleansing; and fourth, that it may be an important form of redress for refugees. This suggests that under the right circumstances return can advance morally valuable outcomes that other approaches to resolving displacement do not. While some persuasive arguments may be made for promoting return as the preferred solution to displacement, this should not translate into restrictions on the claims of individual refugees to pursue other solutions, such as local integration in host countries. Even if refugees access other solutions, they retain a legitimate claim to return to their countries of origin. In this sense the possibility of return is essential to the resolution of refugee situations, even if it is not uniformly preferable.

Speaker:

Megan Bradley is an Associate Professor in Political Science and International Development Studies at McGill University.
Her research focuses on refugees and internal displacement, humanitarianism, human rights, and efforts to redress massive injustices. Her books include Refugee Repatriation: Justice, Responsibility and Redress (Cambridge University Press, 2013), and Forced Migration, Reconciliation and Justice (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015).
Alongside her research and teaching, Dr Bradley has worked with a range of organizations concerned with development, human rights and humanitarianism. From 2012-2014, she was a Fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. She has also worked with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and served as the Cadieux-Léger Fellow at Global Affairs Canada.
She received her doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford.

_________________________________

The International Refugee Law Seminar Series, sponsored by the Refugee Law Initiative at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, provides a public space for discussion, promotion and dissemination of research between academics, practitioners, students and others with an interest in the refugee and forced migration field.

The 10th International Refugee Law Seminar Series is held jointly with UNHCR to present discussion and analysis of key issues in refugee law and policy.

This series will explore the future of refugee protection in a global community. It will frame those discussions within the current 'blueprint' of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). Bringing together a range of speakers from academic, policy and lived experience, the series will present varied perspectives on the development of refugee protection and promote the visibility of, and engagement with, the GCR within UK academic and public audiences.

Photograph © UNHCR/Sebastian Rich

Is Return the Preferred Solution for Refugees?

'Easing Pressure: Uganda and the Global Compact on Refugees'

Abstract:

The Global Compact on Refugees has four main objectives, the first of which is to 'Ease Pressure on Host Countries'. This reflects an acknowledgement of the resources and efforts of host countries in responding to refugee situations, and the fact that the majority of refugees are hosted in countries within the Global South with limited capacity to do so. As such the GCR 'seeks to achieve more equitable and predictable burden- and responsibility-sharing with host countries and communities'. In this presentation the Ugandan High Commissioner to the UK will speak about the context of Uganda, as one of the world's largest host countries of refugees, and of the impact that changes promoted through the GCR might have in this space.

Speaker:

Julius Peter Moto, The High Commissioner of the Republic of Uganda to the United Kingdom and Ireland

_________________________________

The International Refugee Law Seminar Series, sponsored by the Refugee Law Initiative at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, provides a public space for discussion, promotion and dissemination of research between academics, practitioners, students and others with an interest in the refugee and forced migration field.

The 10th International Refugee Law Seminar Series is held jointly with UNHCR to present discussion and analysis of key issues in refugee law and policy.

This series will explore the future of refugee protection in a global community. It will frame those discussions within the current 'blueprint' of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). Bringing together a range of speakers from academic, policy and lived experience, the series will present varied perspectives on the development of refugee protection and promote the visibility of, and engagement with, the GCR within UK academic and public audiences.

Photograph © UNHCR/Sebastian Rich

Easing Pressure: Uganda and the Global Compact on Refugees

'Solutions and the Global Compact on Refugees - A Long Road 'Home''

Abstract:

While the headline objectives from the Global Compact on Refugees are (i) fairer and more predictable burden- and responsibility-sharing and (ii) enhanced protection and assistance for refugees and host communities, the sub-text of the Compact is to achieve durable and sustainable solutions (paragraphs 85-100). Adopting a human rights based approached and ‘thick’ rule of law initiatives that draw on humanitarian principles and development initiatives (where the refugee population are part of the national development plan), the objective is to move towards solutions for refugees that thereby obviate the need for burden- and responsibility-sharing. While there are three traditional solutions, voluntary repatriation, resettlement and local integration, the emphasis in the Formal consultations was on voluntary repatriation and resettlement/ complementary pathways, even though the majority of displaced persons locally integrate or remain in limbo. So, where is ‘home’?

Speaker:

Geoff Gilbert, Professor of Law, University of Essex

_________________________________

The International Refugee Law Seminar Series, sponsored by the Refugee Law Initiative at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, provides a public space for discussion, promotion and dissemination of research between academics, practitioners, students and others with an interest in the refugee and forced migration field.

The 10th International Refugee Law Seminar Series is held jointly with UNHCR to present discussion and analysis of key issues in refugee law and policy.

This series will explore the future of refugee protection in a global community. It will frame those discussions within the current 'blueprint' of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). Bringing together a range of speakers from academic, policy and lived experience, the series will present varied perspectives on the development of refugee protection and promote the visibility of, and engagement with, the GCR within UK academic and public audiences.

Photograph © UNHCR/Sebastian Rich

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