This Fundamental Rights in Practice event on 22nd April 2021 discusses the challenges to the protection of fundamental rights presented by the use of facial recognition technology and by the lack of regulation on its development, sale and deployment.Amnesty International will present its global campaign "#BanTheScan" calling for a ban of FRT for the purpose of mass surveillance. Markus N. Beeko, Secretary General of Amnesty International in Germany and Chair of the Amnesty Steering Group on Human Rights in the Digital Age, will discuss the human rights impact of FRT as well as regulation and governance approaches. Matt Mahmoudi, researcher and adviser on artificial intelligence and human rights at Amnesty International will presents Amnesty’s #BanThe Scan project, which provides activists with the resources to conquer the technology's use in their home town, and the "Amnesty Decoders" - a worldwide network of digital activists geolocating facial recognition-capable surveillance devices. Cathryn Costello, Professor of Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School and Co-Director of its Centre for Fundamental Rights will act as a commentator.
Read MoreProfessor Cathryn Costello joins a panel of experts to discuss ‘Border Crossings and the Right to Liberty’ in a webinair on 22nd April 2021 organised by Liverpool John Moore’s University Law School and the Criminal Law Group of the European Court of Human Rights.
States have the right to determine the entry, residence and expulsion of aliens in an immigration context. In exercising this power, States increasingly rely on confinement of irregular migrants and asylum seekers in transit zones and reception centres. However, these restrictions imposed on foreigners must comply with the right to liberty enshrined in Article 5 of the Convention.
Through the lens of the Court’s case law, speakers will explore, inter alia, the following issues: the tensions between border confinement of foreigners and the European system of protection of human rights; the conditions under which confinement in transit zones and reception centres amounts to deprivation of liberty; the lawfulness requirement and procedural safeguards under Article 5 as developed by the Court in relation to the detention of migrants and asylum seekers.
Watch now
Read MoreProfessor Cathryn Costello and Dr Yulia Ioffe have submitted their input for the preparation of the report on the implementation of the non-punishment principle in the context of trafficking in persons, which will be presented to the 47th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2021. The report is prepared by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Ms. Siobhán Mullally. The purpose of this report is to identify the core human rights obligations of states, and to examine how forms of punishment such as deprivation of citizenship, detention, forced returns, as well as administrative and criminal sanctions, impact upon the human rights of victims/survivors of trafficking.
The input, submitted by Professor Cathryn Costello and Dr Yulia Ioffe in the context of the RefMig Project, concerns non-penalization and non-criminalization for illegal entry and stay of refugees and some other migrants, who in certain situations may also be victims/survivors of trafficking. The input is based on their work for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law (OUP, March 2021), as well as the study conducted for UNHCR.
Read MoreCaroline Nalule will speak on the topic ‘Formalising Refugee Recognition: Divergence of Interests and State Practices’, at a seminar organised by the Canterbury Institute, an Oxford-based centre for research and learning. The online seminar is scheduled for Wednesday, February 17, 17:00 – 18:30
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Postdoctoral Researcher (f/m/div) - RefMig Project
on part-time (c. 28 hours/week) or full-time (40 hours/week).
The RefMig project seeks an outstanding post-doctoral researcher to work on refugee recognition, to join the project for 22 to 24 months. The RefMig project is an ERC-funded research project led by the Principal Investigator (PI), Professor Cathryn Costello. RefMig is based at the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School, Berlin and the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford. The successful candidate will be based at the Hertie School Berlin and be part of the School’s Centre for Fundamental Rights.
Applications are now closed
Read MoreCathryn Costello represents RefMig at Kaldor Centre Virtual Conference 2020 ‘New Frontiers of Refugee Law in a Closed World’ on 18th November 2020. Professor Costello will discuss emerging and future regional challenges to refugee protection in the panel ‘Protection 360: Surveying refugee challenges across the regions’
Registration is essential.
For more information visit: www.kaldorconference.com
Read MoreRefMig director, Professor Cathryn Costello, delivered the keynote speech at the 14th Conference of the Network Migration Law in November 2020. In her talk titled 'Human Rights at the EU’s External Border' Costello reflected on the topic of law at borders questioning whether those are also the borders of law. Her talk considered the multisited nature of the border -including not only extraterritorial border control but also within states and communities, and on the different ways that law works at these borders. She concluded her talk by reflecting on the rule of law in migration control - not only in terms of accountability but also about its conduct guiding function.
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Forced Migration Review issue 65 with features on Refugee Status Determination and the GP20 Plan of Action: now available online www.fmreview.org/recognising-refugees.
In the main feature – ‘Recognising refugees’ – the authors of 21 articles examine refugee status determination systems worldwide: challenges, consequences and innovations. The second feature offers reflections on lessons and good practice emerging from the 2018–20 GP20 Plan of Action for IDPs. The magazine and the accompanying Editors’ briefing will be available online and in print in English, Arabic, Spanish and French.
Read MoreWe are pleased to share these new short videos highlighting key issues from the German Law Journal Special Issue 21.3 “Border Justice: Migration and Accountability for Human Rights Violations”
In the inaugural German Law Journal Specials episode, editors Cathryn Costello and Itamar Mann talk to German Law Journal editor Nora Markard about the idea and the challenges behind the Special issue, and where it takes us.
In the first #GLJShorts, Bașak Çalı, Cathryn Costello, Melanie Fink, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Itamar Mann, Lilian Tsourdi, and Yannis Kalpouzos present some of the main issues tackled in the Special Issue.
Read MoreOn the release day of the Pact and in cooperation with the German Law Journal, GLJ Special Issue editors Cathryn Costello and Itamar Mann and GLJ editor Nora Markard are shining a “Spotlight on hotspots and the new EU Migration Pact“, with MEP Tineke Strik, psychiatrist Essam Daod of Humanity Crew, German journalist Isabel Schayani, Daniel Howden of Lighthouse Reports, and Minos Mouzourakis, Legal Officer at Refugee Support Aegean.
An online event facilitated by the Hertie School.
Read MoreA new collaborative project on migration and refugee research launched at the Centre for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg (CHREN) by hosting a virtual conference’ Flucht, Governance, Menschenrechte’ on 9th-10th July 2020. Cathryn Costello was part of the panel moderated by Dr. Franck Düvell that discussed ‘The Global Compacts for Migration and on Refugees: current challenges’.
Read MoreAfrica hosts about 33.5% and 17.5% of the world’s refugees and asylum-seekers, respectively. The guarantee of legal aid and representation is not a right under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which virtually all African states have ratified. However, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights that monitors the implementation of the Charter has read into it, specifically within the right to be heard, the obligation of states to provide legal aid or assistance to an accused person or a party to a civil case where the interests of justice so require. This obligation is not contained in any binding instrument but rather in non-binding guiding principles.
This short article by Caroline Nalule sets out the main ways that asylum seekers are able to access legal representation, pointing out that due to the Covid19 pandemic some of societies most vulnerable people are being left in limbo as refugee status determination processes are suspended or are operating with minimal functionality.
Read MoreGovernments all around the world have imposed immobility and social distancing measures as a way to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, yet responses in migration control have been highly varied. While some borders and ports are closed, and some states have halted deportations and detention, others continue to deport unwanted migrants while they import seasonal workers. What implications do the pandemic and the responses there to have for the human rights of migrants and refugees within and outside the borders of Europe? Does the European Court of Human Rights establish adequate standards to protect the human rights of migrants and refugees in the context of COVID-19? Is the CJEU affording better protection, while the ECtHR indulges states' migration control prerogatives? Watch the webinar held on 2nd June 2020 which brought together legal experts, including Cathryn Costello, to discuss the recent case law.
Read MoreAn exciting new collaboration begins between the Refugee Studies Centre and Hertie Institute as Professor Cathryn Costello joins Hertie to co-direct the new Centre for Fundamental Rights alongside RefMig advisory board member Professor Basak Cali. Read the announcement from the Hertie School
The launch event took place on 20/02/2020 gathering together an audience of 200 to listen to an expert panel discuss ‘Are fundamental rights losing or gaining ground?’ Find out more and listen to a podcast of the full discussion.
Read MoreIs Europe Losing it’s Democratic Compass? This was the question that brought together a global group of legal scholars to a conference co-organised by Hasselt University and Lund University on 13th-14th February 2020. Cathryn Costello discussed the ‘Rule of Law, Authoritarian Legalism and Refugees’ in a panel on Migrants’ Rights and the Rule of Law.
See the full conference agenda
Read MoreCall for articles for a Forced Migration Review special issue on 'Recognising Refugees' (Oct 2020), the aim of which is to deepen & broaden our understanding of how refugees are recognised. Deadline for submission of articles: 15 June. For more info & submission guidelines, please see the full call for papers and discuss any ideas for contributions with the FMR editorial team.
Read MoreHow can migration be managed better? How can we control our borders without abusing human rights? And what countries can Europe learn from? Discussing Turkey’s migration and refugee policies Derya Ozkul joins an expert online panel, brought together by The Correspondent, to discuss alternatives to Europe’s migration policy. Follow the online discussion from 3pm on Tuesday 18th February 2020.
Read MoreWith Professor Maja Janmyr and Dr Lewis Turner, RefMig leader Cathryn Costello will be contributing to a work package in the Horizon 2020-project ASILE, coordinated by CEPS (Brussels). The project studies the interactions between emerging international protection systems and the United Nations Global Compact for Refugees (UN GCR), with particular focus on the European Union’s role and contribution. The work package – ‘Refugee Recognition, Self-reliance and Rights’ will facilitate a better understanding of how refugee protection is allocated and the rights enjoyed by refugees, as well as clarify the link between ‘refugeehood’ and the quality of refugee protection, taking work rights as an important litmus test for this protection. It will provide an in-depth comparative case study on the refugee recognition regimes in Jordan and Bangladesh.
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Who is involved in the process of refugee recognition? What are the obstacles in providing protection? These questions were the starting point for an innovative workshop on Recognising Refugees held in December 2019 in Berlin, organised by RefMig and the DeZIM-Kolleg project. Themes discussed on the day were: methodological challenges, contested grounds and vulnerabilities, the role of the judiciary and the role of refugee recognition in the ‘Global South’ - the role of UNHCR. See the full workshop agenda.
Read MoreAt the invitation of ASGI (Association of Juridical Studies on Immigration), an Italian group of academics and lawyers, Cathryn Costello and Angela Sherwood remotely joined a workshop on ‘Externalization of Borders and the Role of IOM ‘ held in Rome on 5th December 2019. Cathryn discussed lessons on how international organisations can avoid human rights violations. The full workshop agenda is available here.
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