The book chapter, Universities and UNHCR: Teaching international Refugee Law in Pakistan, is part of the edited volume Non-signatory States in International Refugee Law. The open access book is edited by BEYOND’s Principal Investigator, Professor Maja Janmyr, together with postdoctoral fellows Arjumand Bano Kazmi and Özlem Gürakar Skribeland. The volume is published as part of Brill’s International Refugee Law Series.
About the publication
Taking Pakistan's non-signatory status to the Refugee Convention as its premise, this chapter examines recent developments in the promotion of international refugee law at the country's leading universities. It explores how international refugee law is being introduced as an academic discipline through both teaching and research, while outlining key challenges in this process. The chapter focuses on the role of the UNHCR as part of this, in connection with its mandate to promote international refugee law.
The chapter employs empirical methods, including semi-structured interviews with academics and UNHCR officials in Pakistan, observations at relevant conferences, and document analysis of international refugee law curricula and agreements between UNHCR and universities. It examines UNHCR's diverse strategies to promote international refugee law norms through formalized collaborations with private and public universities.
The chapter argues that UNHCR's collaborations with Pakistani universities have been predominantly top-down, driven and sustained by UNHCR. It emphasizes that teaching, research, and curriculum development in international refugee law must critically address the Eurocentric origins of the Refugee Convention and examine UNHCR's legal and political role in its extended operations in Pakistan. Additionally, it highlights the importance of incorporating the voices of refugees and asylum seekers into curriculum design and research to foster a more contextualized and translocal understanding of refugee rights. The chapter concludes by raising questions for further research.