IOM Unbound: Obligations and Accountability of the International Organisation for Migration in an Era of Expansion

This volume brings together contributions from legal scholars and political scientists to clarify and assess the obligations (political and legal) of an understudied international organisation, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), now self-styled as ‘the UN Migration agency’, in fact a UN-related entity.   The volume makes significant contributions to the study of IO accountability generally, and to scholarship on the global governance of migration. Contributors include leading legal scholars on international organisations (Professor Helmut Philipp Aust, Freie Universität Berlin; Professor Jan Klabbers, University of Helsinki; Dr Stian Øby Johansen, University of Oslo) and political scientists with expertise on IOs (Professor Christian Kreuder-Sonnen, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Professor Nina Hall, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Chapters also assess IOM’s legal and political obligations in underexplored aspects of its activities, including fair recruitment (Professor Janie Chuang, American University Washington College of Law); internal displacement (Dr Bríd Ní Ghráinne) and its engagement with international humanitarian law in conflict scenarios (Professor Geoff Gilbert, University of Essex).   Costello’s chapter (with Angela Sherwood) reconsiders IOM’s practices and obligations around immigration detention, a field in which it has enabled massive human rights violations (aiding in the establishment of Australian offshore detention) to its current position ostensibly seeking to limit states’ recourse to immigration detention.    

 Draft Table of Contents 

Introduction

Megan Bradley, Cathryn Costello and Angela Sherwood

Part I. IOM’s Mandate, Structure and Governance: Implications for Obligations and Accountability

The Evolution of IOM’s Mandate and Obligations: Accountability to Whom, and for What?

Megan Bradley (McGill University)

The Legal Accountabity of the International Organization for Migration 

Jan Klabbers (University of Helsinki)

The Relationship Between the IOM and the UN: Accountability, Normative Compliance and Human Rights

Miriam Cullen (University of Copenhagen)

The International Organization for Migration and Humanitarian Obligations

Geoff Gilbert (School of Law and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex)

An Assessment of the IOM's Human Rights Obligations and Accountability Mechanisms

Stian Oby Johansen (University of Oslo)

A Human Rights Due Diligence Policy for the IOM?

Helmut Philipp Aust and Lena Riemer (Freie Universität Berlin)

Holding IOM to Account: The Role of International Human Rights Advocacy NGOs

Angela Sherwood (Queen Mary University of London) and Megan Bradley (McGill University)

Part II. IOM in Action: Institutional Ethos, Maleable Norms and Elusive Accountability?

Crisis and Change at IOM: Critical Juncture, Precedents, and Task Expansion

Christian Kreuder-Sonnen and Philip M. Tantow (Friedrich Schiller University Jena)

The IOM’s Engagement with the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement

Bríd Ní Ghráinne (Maynooth University) and Ben Hudson (University of Exeter)

Filling the Normative Void: The IOM as a Data Entrepreneur

Anne Koch (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik)

How IOM Reshaped its Obligations to States on Climate Change and Migration

Nina Hall (Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies)

IOM and Fair Labour Recruitment

Janie Chuang (American University)

IOM’s Practices and Policies on Immigration Detention: Establishing Accountability for Human Rights Violations?

Cathryn Costello (Hertie School/University of Oxford) and Angela Sherwood (Queen Mary University of London)

IOM and ‘Assisted Voluntary Return’: Responsibility for Disguised Deportation?

Jean-Pierre Gauci (British Institute for International and Comparative Law)

Part III. Conclusions and Proposals for Reforms

Conclusion: Implications for Reform and Future Research

Megan Bradley, Cathryn Costello, Angela Sherwood