The 70th anniversary of the 1951 Geneva Convention is being marked by a conference organised by Der DGVN-Landesverband Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW) und die französische UN-Gesellschaft (AFNU) on 19th October 2021. Professor Cathryn Costello will reflect on ‘The EU Legal Framework and the 1951 Refugee Convention: Bolstering, Broadening and Bordering’.
See the full agenda and further details.
Read MoreProcedural guarantees in asylum procedures and in immigration detention, was considered by a group of Irish and Czech judges and other experts in an event organised by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Immigrant Council of Ireland & Forum for Human Rights on on 5/6th October 2021. The event included a lecture ‘Safe country of origin concept: criteria, consequences, case-law’ by Professor Cathryn Costello.
Read MoreThe Berlin Potsdam Research Group “The International Rule of Law – Rise or Decline?” is hosting a Public Event: Thomas Franck Lecture by Professor Cathryn Costello, ‘“The 1951 Refugee Convention at 70: Whither the Convention in the Global Refugee Regime?”. This is an in-person event, to be held on on Thursday, 28 October 2021, at 6.15 pm, see further details.
Read MoreOn 22 September 2021, Dr Derya Ozkul and Dr Caroline Nalule shared key findings from three RefMig Country Profiles with participants of the Refugee Studies Centre’s International Online School in Forced Migration. In their presentation titled ‘Refugee Recognition in Practice: Lessons from a Three-Country Study’, Dr Ozkul and Dr Nalule discussed the role of various institutions in Lebanon, Kenya and South Africa and the quality of recognition for asylum seekers and refugees. The presentation was followed by a Q&A with participants in the online school.
Read MoreCathryn Costello and Jessica Breaugh provided a keynote presentation at a workshop, entitled "Flucht vor Recht – Flucht ins Recht? Empirisch-interdisziplinäre Asylrechtsforschung am Schauplatz Gericht" held in hybrid form at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany on 30 September & 1 October 2021. They discussed the empirical study of refugee recognition processes generally, the particular challenges of studying UNHCR mandate R efugee Status Determination (RSD), and the turn to surveys of decision-makers and others as a data source. They discussed the role of surveys in sociolegal research, in particular the RegMig survey developed to examine he workings of UNHCR mandate RSD. It is anticipated that the manuscripts presented at the workshop will form the basis of a special issue of the German Journal of Forced Migration and Refugee Studies ( Zeitschrift für Flucht- und Flüchtlingsforschung – Z’Flucht).
A short summary of this workshop on methods is available.
Read MoreDerya Ozkul will give a presentation titled 'A New Era for Recognising Refugees in Turkey: Handover of RSD from UNHCR to DGMM' in a conference organised by the Global Education and Culture: Research and Application Center (KEKAM) at Yeditepe University, Istanbul. This fifth annual conference, on 11-12th October 2021, is on the theme 'International Migration in the XXIst century' and will include scholars and practitioners. Dr Ozkul's presentation will be in Turkish.
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Regional launch of The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law: The Middle East
A discussion on the commonalities and contrasts in state approaches to refugee protection in the Middle East.
Time and place: Sep. 15, 2021 3:00 PM–4:15 PM, Online event - registration required
Read MoreCaroline Nalule participated in the panel ‘The global refugee regime and international protection in Africa: Out of step and out of time?’ speaking on ‘The Refugee Recognition Regimes Of Kenya And South Africa Through The Lens Of The Global Compact On Refugees’ at the ERC PROTECT Project MidTerm Conference on 27th August 2021. Watch the panel.
Read MoreThe RefMig research project have released surveys to study UNHCR mandate RSD. We are inviting current and former UNHCR RSD officers and legal aid providers in mandate RSD processes to complete the surveys. This video gives further information on the purpose of the surveys and how to participate in this important study.
Read MoreThe Refugee Law Initiative have issued a series of blog posts that respond to the UK Home Office’s New Plan for Immigration. The latest blog by Cathryn Costello and Emilie McDonnell questions the New Plan for Immigration's compatibility with the UK’s obligation not to penalise refugees for unlawful entry or stay under Article 31 of the Refugee Convention.
Read the blog The “New Plan for Immigration” and the UK’s Breach of its Legal Duty of Non-Penalisation
Read More‘Mobility and Migration for Protection? - The impact of the Global Compact for Migration on the international protection regime’ keynote address by Cathryn Costello at the EU H2020 PROTECT project Expert Forum on 10th September, 2021 .
Read MoreThe European University Institute’s The State of the Union 10th anniversary conference was held on 6 May 2021. Cathryn Costello, Francisco André, Abdelhak Bassou, Kemal Kirişci and moderator Martin Ruhs panel ‘Equal and effective partners? The future of EU-Africa and EU-Turkey cooperationon migration and refugee protection’ is available to watch.
Read MoreThe United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Professor Siobhán Mullally has cited RefMig research by Dr Yulia Ioffe and Professor Cathryn Costello in her report to the 47th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The report refers to both the chapter on non-penalization and non-criminalization recently published in the Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law, as well as a previous study conducted for UNHCR. The report endorses the argument developed in the Handbook chapter (pp. 929–39) that the non-punishment principle is a general principle of law in the sense of article 38(1)(c) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (para 20). Specifically, the report develops the argument advanced in the Handbook chapter that the origin of the principle of non-punishment can be found in international legal system, including in article 31 of the Convention relating to the Statues of Refugees. Recognising the principle of non-penalisation as a general principle of law reinforces legal protections to be afforded to individuals who cross borders in search of refuge, including victims or potential victims of trafficking. The report also refers to the study conducted for UNHCR in order to determine the scope of the general principle of non-punishment, particularly the range of forms of punishment covered by the principle (para 41)
Read MoreListen to Cathryn Costello in conversation with Bridget Anderson - in the latest Migration Mobilities Bristol Insights and Sounds - as they reflect on how the global refugee regime works in practice and what the differences are around the world?
Watch Does where you claim refugee status matter?
Read MoreEurope’s externalisation practices and their impact on refugee protection were the subject of an online discussion, part of a series of events launching The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law (OUP 2021).
Prof. Cathryn Costello (Hertie School of Governance & Oxford University), a co-editor of the Handbook, moderated the discussion, which opened with two contributors, Dr. Lilian Tsourdi (Maastricht University & Dutch Research Council) and Prof. Luisa Feline Freier (Universidad del Pacífico), discussing externalisation of protection obligations.
Responses by three leading early-career scholars, Dr. Meltem Ineli-Ciger (Suleyman Demirel University), Adel-Naim Reyhani (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, Austria) and Nasrat Sayed (Maastricht University), and half an hour for Q&A followed
The Maastricht Centre for European Law, the European Society of International Law, and Oxford University Press hosted this discussion, based on The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law edited by Profs. Cathryn Costello, Michelle Foster and Jane McAdam.
The online event was held on 17 June 2021.
Read MoreRefugees understanding of formal refugee status determination processes, and subsequently their actions, are also shaped by informal networks. On 18th June 2021, Derya Ozkul will discuss her paper, “How Do Refugees Navigate the UNHCR’s Bureaucracy? The Role of Rumours in Accessing Humanitarian Aid and Resettlement” as part of Oxford Brookes’ Migration & Refugees Network seminars.
Day and time: 18 June, 11 am BST
Platform: Zoom https://brookes.zoom.us/j/5589309523
Read MoreThis book launch event was hosted by the Refugee Studies Centre, Hertie School for Fundamental Rights, Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness and the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, on Tuesday 25 May 2021
The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law is a groundbreaking new book which critiques the status quo in international refugee law and sets the agenda for future research. Professor Hilary Charlesworth launched this state-of-the-art work and engaged in a lively discussion with the three editors, Professors Cathryn Costello, Michelle Foster and Jane McAdam. The event was chaired by refugee advocate and lawyer Nyadol Nyuon.
Attendees joined to find out what the Handbook tells us about the situation for refugees today, and how international protection is – or isn’t – working at a time when mobility is curtailed for so many. A 65-chapter reference work involving 78 authors, including 48 women, the Handbook is global in scope, with 10 chapters focusing in detail on specific regions, including Africa, Latin America, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East.
The Handbook contains two RefMig related chapters, coauthored by Cathryn Costello - ‘Non Penalization’ co-authored with Yulia Ioffe and ‘The Right to Work’ with Colm O’Cinnéide.
Watch now or Listen to the podcast.
Read MoreAt the invitation of the Migration Research Association in Turkey, on Tuesday 8th June 2021, Derya Ozkul moderated a short talk with Metin Corabatir, President of the Research Center on Asylum and Migration (IGAM), and Dr Neva Övünç Öztürk, Lecturer in Ankara University, Law Faculty as part of their seminars “Re-evaluating the 1951 Geneva Convention in its 70th Anniversary”
Watch now (in Turkish)
Read MoreFollowing the large and unexpected increase in the numbers of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe in 2015-16, the European Union struck a ‘migration deal’ with Turkey (2016). At the same time, the EU intensified its efforts to reach similar cooperation agreements with African states that are either source and/or transit countries for irregular migrants in the EU. The European Commission’s recently published ‘New Pact on Migration and Asylum’ (2020) proposes a range of measures aimed at expanding and increasing the effectiveness of cooperation with non-EU countries in the governance of migration and refugee protection. What has been the experience of past efforts of cooperation between the EU and countries in the EU neighbourhood? What concerns does such cooperation raise and how might they be addressed? What are the policy preferences and constraints in the EU, Turkey, and African countries of migrants’ origin and transit?
Professor Cathryn Costello joins the panel to discuss this important area of policy at the European University Institute’s Geopolitics conference on 6th May 2021 16.00 (CEST) This is an invitation only event - register your interest.
Read MoreIn this video, Professor Cathryn Costello, PI of the RefMig project, and Dr Derya Ozkul, RefMig postdoctoral researcher interview Professor Lamis Abdelaaty, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University about her new book Discrimination and Delegation: Explaining State Responses to Refugees (OUP, 2021). Based on her APSA award-winning doctoral research, the book makes a ground-breaking contribution to our understanding of the global refugee regime, aiming to explain why states respond differently to different groups of refugees, and in particular why they choose to delegate aspects of their response (including the function of deciding who is a refugee) to UNHCR. The work is global in scope, with particular case studies of Egypt and Turkey, and an in-depth analysis of political debates in Kenya. They discuss her research questions and hypotheses, her research methods and case selection, and the broader implications of her book.
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