The 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.
Read MoreThis 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
Read MorePostdoctoral 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.
Read MoreForced 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.
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