Naureen Rahim

Bøker (redigert)

Co-edited the Essays on Transitional Justice: Asian Practices, Nicole Janisiewicz et.al., published by the Transitional Justice Asia Network (TJAN) and Center for the Study of Genocide and Justice (CSGJ), December 2021.

Co-edited the Rohingya Genocide: Compilation and Analysis of Survivors' Testimonies, Mofidul Hoque et. al., published by the Center for the Study of Genocide and Justice, September 2018.

Bokkapitler

‘Citizenship and Statelessness’ in Bangladesh and International Law, Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series, ed. Mohammad Shahabuddin, February 2021.

Tidsskriftarikkel

Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Its Relevance to Sustainable Development, Somaliland Peace and Development Journal (Peer reviewed), Volume 4, October 2020, pp. 43-53.

Bokanmeldelse

The Harijans of Bangladesh: Living with the Injustice of Untouchability, published in the Bangladesh Journal of Dalit and Minority, November 2016 Issue, ISSN: 2411-7714, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

• Rahim, Naureen (2026). A twist in the tale of Asian exceptionalism: Bangladesh’s ‘near accession’ to the 1951 Refugee Convention. International Journal of Refugee Law. ISSN 0953-8186. doi: 10.1093/ijrl/eeag017. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article contests claims of Asian exceptionalism by examining the unique case of Bangladesh, a principal refugee-hosting State in South Asia, which came close to acceding to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees in 1989. Using a general inductive approach, drawing on materials from the Archives and Records Division at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees headquarters, together with interviews conducted during fieldwork in Bangladesh, the article offers a socio-legal historical examination of the moment when Bangladesh formally decided to accede to the Convention. By framing this episode as a ‘near accession’, the article concludes that the traditional understanding of the Asian rejection of the 1951 Convention remains fluid; some States in the region may view their position in relation to the Convention from a different perspective. Using Bangladesh as the case study, the article identifies three interconnected factors that influenced the overall process of ‘near accession’ to the 1951 Convention: (1) concerted efforts by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to promote accession, premised on the expectation that Bangladesh’s membership would create a persuasive regional precedent; (2) authorities’ quest to acquire domestic and international legitimacy for the military-backed government; and (3) the pivotal roles played by key individuals within both the government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the accession process. Although this single example cannot provide a complete understanding of non-signatory States’ engagement with the 1951 Convention, the article argues that each case should be investigated with consideration for these three significant components that shape State behaviour. The article also explores how despite the formal decision to accede to the 1951 Convention, the Bangladeshi Government did not follow through with formal accession. To this day, Bangladesh remains a non-signatory State. The empirical study of Bangladesh’s ‘near accession’ challenges the notion of uniformity in South Asia in relation to the 1951 Convention, and thereby provides new insights into our understanding of non-signatory States and, more broadly, into the study of international refugee law.

• Rahim, Naureen (2023). Bangladesh and the 1951 Refugee Convention. RLI Blog on refugees and forced migration. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Blogpost published on February 06, 2023 in the Refugee Law Initiative Blog

• Rahim, Naureen (2022). Symposium on Bangladesh Genocide and International Law: The Refugee Crisis in Context. Cambridge International Law Journal (CILJ). ISSN 2398-9173. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rahim, Naureen (2020). Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Its Relevance to Sustainable Development. Somaliland Peace and Development Journal. ISSN 2707-4897. 4, s. 43–53. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is directly linked to lands, animals, ecology, and natural resources. It is an ancient practice that continued through generations over generations linked to spirituality and sustainability. Often referred to as indigenous knowledge, TEK represents a collective understanding attained over time of the relationship between traditional communities and the earth. TEK is preserved primarily as an oral tradition and is passed from generation to generation through storytelling, ceremonies, arts, crafts, and songs, media that provide rich context and can flexibly evolve to incorporate new observations and understandings. In this background, this paper highlights the significance and challenges of recognizing TEK in ensuring sustainable development. Central to this understanding is how the TEK is related to the right to development among indigenous communities. The extent that the TEK can contribute to mitigating global challenges shall also be discussed in this article.

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• Rahim, Naureen (2026). Bangladesh and the Refugee Convention: Through a Socio-Legal Lens. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rahim, Naureen (2026). Legal Obligations and Policy Realities: Bangladesh and the Global Refugee Regime. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  A PhD dissemination event focusing on Bangladesh's role in shaping refugee governance beyond treaty obligations.

• Rahim, Naureen (2026). A Dissemination and Consultation Event on 'Bangladesh and the International Refugee Regime'. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law (IKRS), Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo (UiO) in collaboration with the Research Initiatives, Bangladesh (RIB) and Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) has organized an event on ‘Bangladesh and International Refugee Law Regime’ on 11 August 2026 at the Unique Regency Hotel, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The event was arranged as part of the PhD project of this Department’s Doctoral Research Fellow, Naureen Rahim, where she presented her research findings and fieldwork experience from Bangladesh, followed by a consultation with the relevant stakeholders.

• Rahim, Naureen (2026). Between Mandate and Market: UNHCR, IOM and the Refugee Governance in Bangladesh. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This paper examines how the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)—a normative agency—sustained its role alongside the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a non normative actor that the Bangladeshi government designated to play a lead role during the 2017 Rohingya influx. This results in “regime shifting” (Morse and Keohane 2014), whereby an alternative multilateral organization that offers a more favorable mandate challenges the existing multilateral organization by shifting its authority within the regime. Drawing on archival materials and interviews conducted during fieldwork in Bangladesh, I argue that Bangladesh has tended to favor the IOM over the UNHCR primarily to avoid the latter’s intense normative pressures associated with stringent international refugee standards. The perceived lack of conducive durable solutions offered by the UNHCR for the Rohingya crisis has eroded the State’s confidence in the agency. By contrast, Bangladesh has increasingly relied on the IOM’s capacity to manage migration-related issues, viewing the organization as more practically aligned with its objectives for refugee management. Fieldwork data also indicate that the decision to engage the IOM during the 2017 influx was not made in isolation or solely by formal state institutions in Bangladesh; individual actors with personal or political stakes also played a role in shaping that decision.

• Rahim, Naureen (2026). Seminar on A twist in the tale of Asian exceptionalism: Bangladesh’s ‘near accession’ to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Why did Bangladesh come close to acceding to the 1951 Refugee Convention—only to step back at the last moment? Doctoral Research Fellow at Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law Naureen Rahim explores this topic.

• Rahim, Naureen (2025). Historicizing Bangladesh as a Non-Signatory State to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Some of the world’s major refugee hosting states are not parties to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. The South Asian region is a case in point. This paper focuses on Bangladesh, a South Asian state which has hosted Rohingya refugees for almost three decades despite lacking any asylum management mechanism or domestic law on refugees. UNHCR is allowed to operate on Bangladeshi territory on the basis of a 1993 Memorandum of Understanding. To date, not many studies have examined in any detail the relationship between Bangladesh and the international refugee regime more generally, or the approach of Bangladesh to the Refugee Convention more specifically. This paper seeks to fill this critical gap by drawing on one year of qualitative field work in Bangladesh and archival research at its National Parliament and the UNHCR archives in Geneva. First, the author explores the reasons behind Bangladesh’s decision to not accede the Convention, examining how its position have changed over time. Based on archival records, the paper will show how Bangladesh at some point, was historically willing to accede the Convention and why it had a change of mind. Second, the paper examines Bangladesh’s more contemporary involvement in international fora on refugee protection. Overall, a Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) approach is adopted to make a claim that the (re)construction of country’s international borders within the ambit of historical trajectories are also significant to explain Bangladesh’s approach to the international refugee regime.

• Rahim, Naureen (2023). Bangladesh's engagement in International Refugee Law. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rahim, Naureen (2022). PhD research proposal presentation. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rahim, Naureen (2022). Presentation- State positioning in the Non-accession to 1951 Refugee Convention: Legal Protection for the Refugees in Bangladesh. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rahim, Naureen (2021). Citizenship and Statelessness. I Shahabuddin, Mohammad (Red.), Bangladesh and International Law. Routledge. ISSN 9780367618582. s. 98–108. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The redrawing of international borders, the manipulation of political systems, and/or the denial or deprivation of nationality to exclude and marginalise racial, religious, or ethnic minorities have resulted in statelessness in every region of the world. People who have legitimate claims to citizenship but cannot prove their citizenship, or whose governments refuse to recognise their nationality, are called de facto stateless. Causes of statelessness include, but are not limited to, political upheaval, targeted discrimination (often for reasons of race or ethnicity), differences in laws between countries, laws relating to marriage and birth registration, expulsion of a people from a territory, nationality based on descent (usually that of the father), abandonment, and lack of means to register children.

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