The Refugee Convention at 75: Program

Click on titles to read abstracts. 

Panel A1: Who is a Refugee? Theory and Practice

22 June, 11:30 – 13:00, Main stage

Chair: Dallal Stevens (University of Warwick)

• Catherine Dauvergne (University of British Columbia): Towards a Theoretical Account of the Refugee in International Law
• Andrew Wai Phyo Kyaw (Chiang Mai University): Theorizing Forced Conscription as Persecution for Refugee Claims
• Malak Benslama-Dabdoub (Royal Holloway, University of London): Rethinking Article 1A(2): Statelessness, Refugee Protection, and the Limits of Legal Labels
• Adel-Naim Reyhani (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights): The 1951 Convention, Rightlessness, and the “Sphere above the Nations”
• Nora Milch (University of Oslo): International Refugee Protection in Unrecognized States
• Hsiang-Yu Liu (University of Warwick): A 20-Year Deadlock in Taiwan’s Refugee Legislation: The Definitional Complexities of the 1951 Convention Amidst Cross-Strait Relations

Panel A2: Looking Outside the 1951 Refugee Convention: The Politics of Protection and Responsibility in the Global South

22 June, 11:30 – 13:00, Blue room

Chair: Megan Bradley (McGill University)

• Bidisha Biswas (Western Washington University): Revisiting Refugee Protection and Responsibility-Sharing Through South Asian Histories: Comparative Lessons from India and Bangladesh
• Rohini Mitra (University of Göttingen): The Development and Dismantling of Fragmented Protection: Rohingya Refugee Experiences of Fragmented Governance Across India
• Tamirace Fakhoury (Tufts University): Responsibility-Sharing and Narrative Tracing across Scales of Power: How Expectations in Geneva are Renegotiated in Beirut
• Naureen Rahim (University of Oslo): Between Mandate and Market: UNHCR, IOM and the Refugee Governance in Bangladesh
• Fransiska Susanto (Universitas Brawijaya): Refugee Protection Beyond Ratification: Indonesia’s Hybrid Governance Model and Its Structural Gaps

Panel B1: Judicial Pathways in Refugee Law

22 June, 13:45 – 15:15, Main stage

Chair: Özlem Gürakar Skribeland (University of Oslo)

• Chiara Scissa (University of Bologna): The 1951 Refugee Convention in Law and in Practice: Judicial attempts to curb state-led barriers to asylum
• Lorett Mary Jesudoss (University of Bologna): The 1951 Convention in the Context of Asylum Access Adjudication by Malaysian Courts
• Salvo Nicolosi (Utrecht University): Gender Mainstreaming in International Refugee Law: The Contribution of the Court of Justice of the European Union
• M Sanjeeb Hossain (University of Oslo): The Incidental Organic Evolution of Refugee Protection: How Bangladesh’s Courts Internalised Non-Refoulement
• Elizabeth Mavropoulou (University of Westminster): Refugee Convention and Obligations Erga Omnes Partes: Prospects for Litigating the Refugee Convention before the International Court of Justice
• Ramy Abdelhady (University of Bristol): Overlooked Avenues: Challenging Refugee Externalisation Through African Regional Mechanisms

Panel B2: Re-reading and Re-imagining the 1951 Convention

22 June, 13:45 – 15:15, Blue room

Chair: Arjumand Bano Kazmi (University of Oslo)

• Sara Cosemans (KU Leuven): Refugee Protection as Consular Protection? Re-reading the 1951 Refugee Convention Against the Backdrop of the Global Passport Regime
• Sherine al Shallah (University of New South Wales): Refugee Convention and Cultural Heritage
• Jaba Kaplanishvili (University of Westminster): International Refugee Law: from queer exclusion to queer reconstruction
• Dilahan Bice-Kurtoğlu (University of Warwick): The Practitioner's Paradox: Local Realities and Relevance of the 1951 Refugee Convention
• Norman Pinduka (Africa University): Reimagining Compliance: Fortifying Refugee Protection in Africa through Community-Centered Approaches

Panel C1: Temporariness in Refugee Protection

23 June, 09:00 – 10:15, Main stage

Chair: Özlem Gürakar Skribeland (University of Oslo)

• Marjoleine Zieck (University of Amsterdam): Ending Protection: Temporal Incongruities
• Jessica Schultz (Chr. Michelsen Institute): Cessation and the ‘Temporary Turn’ in Refugee Protection
• Maciej Grześkowiak (European University Institute): The Gap Between Temporary Refuge and Asylum: How International Refugee Law Entrenches Crisis
• Maja Łysienia (University of Lausanne and HES-SO Valais-Wallis): (Between) Temporality and Durability of Refugee Protection

Panel C2: Digitization and Artificial Intelligence 

23 June, 09:00 – 10:15, Blue room

Chair: M Sanjeeb Hossain (University of Oslo)

• Abdullah Yassen (Erbil Polytechnic University): AI, Borders, and the Relevance of the Refugee Convention
• Didem Doğar (Tilburg University): Intersecting Legal Principles: Refugee Exclusion and GDPR Implications
• Murtaza Mohiqi (University of Agder): From the Legal Refugee to the Computational Refugee in an Age of Algorithmic Prediction
• Angel Peña Perez (ECODE Foundation): The Refugee Convention and the Crisis of the Voice in the New Frontier: The Case for Algorithmic Asylum

Panel D1: Regression and Backlash

23 June, 10:30 – 12:00, Main stage

Chair: Marjoleine Zieck (University of Amsterdam)

• Jaya Ramji-Nogales (Temple University): Dismantling the Refugee Convention: The Trump Administration's Existential Challenges
• Sophie Capicchiano Young (University of Galway): Crisis and Opportunity: The Erosion of International Refugee Law in Moments of Chaos
• Bríd Ní Ghráinne (Maynooth University): Criminalising Asylum in Ireland
• Sarah Singer (University of London): The Death Knell of Article 31? Penalising Asylum Seekers in the UK

Panel D2: UNHCR and International Protection

23 June, 10:30 – 12:00, Blue Room

Chair: Maja Janmyr (University of Oslo)

• Megan Bradley (McGill University): Problem solved? Racial aphasia, colonial unknowing and the universalization of UNHCR and the 1951 Refugee Convention
• Kağan Sürücü (University of Edinburgh): The Seventh Floor: Externalisation of Asylum and Reconstructing UNHCR's Mandate
• Judith Hopperman (SOAS, University of London): From Humanitarianism to Statecraft? International Organizations as Facilitators and Drivers of Organized Forced Migration
• Charlotte Lysa (NUPI): Non-signatory States and the International Refugee Regime: Shifting hierarchies of refugees and UNHCR engagement in Saudi Arabia
• Georgia Cole (University of Edinburgh) & Sousan Ibrahim (University College London): When Can One Become a Refugee? Latent Refugeehood and Reluctant Asylum

Panel E1: Externalization and Borders

23 June, 12:45 – 14:15, Main stage

Chair: Georgia Cole (University of Edinburgh)

• Gamze Ovacık (McGill University): Beyond the Convention’s Intent? Externalisation and the Limits of the Refugee Convention
• Giulia Raimondo (University of Fribourg), Martin Lemberg-Pedersen (University of Southern Denmark) & Joyce De Coninck (European University Institute): Marketising Exclusion: How Europe’s Border-Security Economy Challenges the Refugee Convention
• Ruben Wissing (Ghent University): The Border Turn in the EU Pact: Access to Territorial Asylum under the Legal Fiction of Non-Entry
• Bresena Kopliku (University of Shkodra “Luigj Gurakuqi”): Offshore Asylum and the Future of Refugee Protection: Lessons From the Italy-Albania Migration Agreement

Panel E2: Alternative Solutions and Actors

23 June, 12:45 – 14:15, Blue Room

Chair: Arjumand Bano Kazmi (University of Oslo)

• Emiliya Bratanova (Lund University): Complementary Pathways, the Multi-Stakeholder Approach and the Future of Refugee Protection
• Astrid Espegren (NTNU), Ingunn Bjørkhaug (OsloMet) & Kristin Bergtora Sandvik (University of Oslo): Resettlement Is Dead. Long Live Resettlement (Research)!
• Veronica Øverlid (VID Specialized University): Pushing for Action in Global Refugee and Migration Fora – a Mapping of Activist Engagements
• Ragna Lillevik (Fafo): Through the Eye of the Needle: Competing Logics in Norway's Resettlement of Refugees

Go to all abstracts

• Lamis Abdelaaty (Syracuse University)
• Ramy Abdelhady (University of Bristol)
• Sherine Al Shallah (University of New South Wales)
• Cecilia Bailliet (University of Oslo)
• Malak Benslama-Dabdoub (Royal Holloway, University of London)
• Dilahan Bice-Kurtoğlu (University of Warwick)
• Bidisha Biswas (Western Washington University)
• Megan Bradley (McGill University)
• Emiliya Bratanova (Lund University)
• Sophie Capicchiano Young (University of Galway)
• Amanda Cellini (University of Oslo)
• Georgia Cole (University of Edinburgh)
• Sara Cosemans (KU Leuven)
• Catherine Dauvergne (University of British Columbia)
• Didem Doğar (Tilburg University)
• Terje Einarsen (University of Bergen)
• Astrid Espegren (NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
• Tamirace Fakhoury (Tufts University)
• Daniel Ghezelbash (University of New South Wales)
• Kelly Greenhill (Tufts University and MIT)
• Maciej Grześkowiak (European University Institute)
• Özlem Gürakar Skribeland (University of Oslo)
• Judith Hopperman (SOAS, University of London)
• Sanjeeb Hossain (University of Oslo)
• Sousan Ibrahim (University College London)
• Maja Janmyr (University of Oslo)
• Lorett Mary Jesudoss (University of Bologna)
• Jaba Kaplanishvili (University of Westminster)
• Arjumand Bano Kazmi (University of Oslo)
• Mohamad Kharita (independent)
• Bresena Kopliku (University of Shkodra “Luigj Gurakuqi”)
• Andrew Wai Phyo Kyaw (Chiang Mai University)
• Martin Lemberg-Pedersen (University of Southern Denmark)
• Ragna Lillevik (The Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research)
• Hsiang-Yu Liu (University of Warwick)
• Charlotte Lysa (NUPI)
• Maja Łysienia (University of Lausanne and HES-SO Valais-Wallis)
• Elizabeth Mavroupolou (University of Westminster)
• Nora Milch (University of Oslo)
• Rohini Mitra (University of Göttingen)
• Murtaza Mohiqi (University of Agder)
• Bríd Ní Ghráinne (Maynooth University)
• Salvo Nicolosi (Utrecht University)
• Gamze Ovacık (McGill University)
• Aphrodite Papachristodoulou (University of Cyprus)
• Angel Peña Perez (ECODE Foundation)
• Norman Pinduka (Africa University)
• Naureen Rahim (University of Oslo)
• Giulia Raimondo (University of Fribourg)
• Jaya Ramji-Nogales (Temple University)
• Adel-Naim Reyhani (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights)
• Kristin Bergtora Sandvik (University of Oslo)
• Jessica Schultz (Chr. Michelsen Institute)
• Chiara Scissa (University of Bologna)
• Sarah Singer (University of London)
• Dallal Stevens (University of Warwick)
• Kağan Sürücü (University of Edinburgh)
• Fransiska Susanto (Universitas Brawijaya)
• Ruben Wissing (Ghent University)
• Cornelis (Kees) Wouters (UNHCR)
• Abdullah Yassen (Erbil Polytechnic University)
• Marjoleine Zieck (University of Amsterdam)
• Veronica Øverlid (VID Specialized University)