Rethinking refugee protection

The international refugee regime holds the protection of refugees at its core. This is also reflected in the legal mandate of the UN Refugee Agency. Yet policies meant to protect refugees commonly fall short, states often avoid taking in and thus protecting refugees, and the notion of protection itself is not always easily defined. Responsibility-sharing is a core theme as states navigate sovereignty, political backlash, and human rights obligations regionally and globally. Some of the questions addressed here include: How can so-called humanitarian programmes better protect refugees? Are EU asylum policies in reality policies of containment? What risks exist in ongoing protective policies towards refugees, and how can they be addressed? Where does the notion of protection stem from, and why does this matter for refugee assistance?

Jenny Poon

PhD candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario

Claire Walkey

DPhil candidate, Oxford Department of International Development

Lukasz Dziedzic

PhD Researcher, Department of European and International Public Law, International Victimology Institute Tilburg

Evan Easton-Calabria

Editor, Rethinking Refuge Platform & Senior Research Officer, RSC

Alexander Betts

Leopold Muller Professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs

Kate Pincock

Researcher, Overseas Development Institute

Laura Santi Amantini

PhD Student in Philosophy, University of Genoa, Italy; former RSC Visiting Fellow

Catherine Briddick

Martin James Departmental Lecturer in Gender and Forced Migration, Refugee Studies Centre

Vasileia Digidiki

Instructor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Jacqueline Bhabha

Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Sabrineh Ardalan

Director, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

Philipp Lutz

Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva

Anna Stünzi

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of St.Gallen

Stefan Manser-Egli

Doctoral researcher, University of Neuchâtel

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