Leading international refugee law expert Professor James Hathaway will present a public lecture about how to rescue the international asylum systemonWednesday, September 23.
The Director of the Program in Refugee and Asylum Law at the University of Michigan will focus attention on the fact that, despite much recent attention to refugee arrivals in Europe, more than 80% of the world’s refugees live in the less developed world where their rights are often at risk and the states that receive them are not meaningfully supported by states of the developed world.
He will argue that the UN’s Refugee Convention provides the right response to the needs of both refugees and the countries that receive them, but that the treaty’s mechanisms are outdated and in need of urgent and creative renewal.
Confidence to remain open to the arrival of refugees will be undermined until and unless the world community establishes a practical system to share the burdens and responsibilities of refugee protection.
Professor Hathaway’s work is regularly cited by the most senior courts of the common law world. His The Law of Refugee Status (2015) is one of the leading studies of the refugee definition.
His Rights of Refugees under International Law i(2005) is the first comprehensive analysis of the human right of refugees set by the UN Refugee Convention.
WHAT: Public Lecture – Moving beyond good intentions: The Road to Refugee Rights
WHEN: September 23, 5.30pm-7.30pm
WHERE: Banco Court, 415 George Street, Brisbane.