RefMig Meets…

RefMig Meets the Author: Dr Hilary Evans Cameron

In this video, Cathryn Costello, Professor of Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School and Co-Director of its Centre for Fundamental Rights, and Professor Gregor Noll, University of Gothenburg, interview Hilary Evans Cameron on her book: 

Refugee Law’s Fact-finding Crisis: Truth, Risk and the Wrong Mistake

(Cambridge University Press 2018)

RefMig Meets the Author Dr Lamis Abdelaaty

In this video, Professor Cathryn Costello, PI of the RefMig project, and Dr Derya Ozkul, RefMig postdoctoral researcher interview Professor Lamis Abdelaaty, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University about her new book Discrimination and Delegation: Explaining State Responses to Refugees (OUP, 2021). Based on her APSA award-winning doctoral research, the book makes a ground-breaking contribution to our understanding of the global refugee regime, aiming to explain why states respond differently to different groups of refugees, and in particular why they choose to delegate aspects of their response (including the function of deciding who is a refugee) to UNHCR. The work is global in scope, with particular case studies of Egypt and Turkey, and an in-depth analysis of political debates in Kenya. They discuss her research questions and hypotheses, her research methods and case selection, and the broader implications of her book.

Watch again…

The Refugee Recognition Regimes Of Kenya And South Africa Through The Lens Of The Global Compact On Refugees

Caroline Nalule participated in the panel ‘The global refugee regime and international protection in Africa: Out of step and out of time?’ speaking on ‘The Refugee Recognition Regimes Of Kenya And South Africa Through The Lens Of The Global Compact On Refugees’ at the ERC PROTECT Project MidTerm Conference on 27th August 2021.


Mobility and Migration for Protection? - The impact of the Global Compact for Migration on the international protection regime’

Keynote address by Cathryn Costello at the EU H2020 PROTECT project Expert Forum on 10th September, 2021 .


Equal and effective partners? The future of EU-Africa and EU-Turkey cooperation on migration and refugee protection

The European University Institute’s The State of the Union 10th anniversary conference was held on 6 May 2021. Watch again Cathryn Costello, Francisco André, Abdelhak Bassou, Kemal Kirişci and moderator Martin Ruhs panel ‘Equal and effective partners?


Does where you claim refugee status matter?

Listen to Cathryn Costello in conversation with Bridget Anderson - in the latest Migration Mobilities Bristol Insights and Sounds - as they reflect on how the global refugee regime works in practice and what the differences are around the world?


Book Launch - The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law

The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law is a groundbreaking new book which critiques the status quo in international refugee law and sets the agenda for future research. Professor Hilary Charlesworth launched this state-of-the-art work and engaged in a lively discussion with the three editors, Professors Cathryn Costello, Michelle Foster and Jane McAdam. The event was chaired by refugee advocate and lawyer Nyadol Nyuon.

The Handbook contains two RefMig related chapters, coauthored by Cathryn Costello - ‘Non Penalization’ co-authored with Yulia Ioffe and ‘The Right to Work’ with Colm O’Cinnéide.


Turkey - 70 years on from the 1951 Geneva Convention

At the invitation of the Migration Research Association in Turkey, on Tuesday 8th June 2021, Derya Ozkul moderated a short talk with Metin Corabatir, President of the Research Center on Asylum and Migration (IGAM), and Dr Neva Övünç Öztürk, Lecturer in Ankara University, Law Faculty as part of their seminars “Re-evaluating the 1951 Geneva Convention in its 70th Anniversary” (Watch in Turkish)


Border Crossings and the Right to Liberty

Professor Cathryn Costello joins a panel of experts to discuss ‘Border Crossings and the Right to Liberty’ in a webinair on 22nd April 2021 organised by Liverpool John Moore’s University Law School and the Criminal Law Group of the European Court of Human Rights.

States have the right to determine the entry, residence and expulsion of aliens in an immigration context. In exercising this power, States increasingly rely on confinement of irregular migrants and asylum seekers in transit zones and reception centres. However, these restrictions imposed on foreigners must comply with the right to liberty enshrined in Article 5 of the Convention.


Human Rights at the EU’s External Border

RefMig director, Professor Cathryn Costello, delivered the keynote speech at the 14th Conference of the Network Migration Law in November 2020. In her talk titled 'Human Rights at the EU’s External Border' Costello reflected on the topic of law at borders, questioning whether those are also the borders of law. Her talk considered the multisited nature of the border -including not only extraterritorial border control but also within states and communities, and on the different ways that law works at these borders. She concluded her talk by reflecting on the rule of law in migration control - not only in terms of accountability but also about its conduct guiding function.


Video shorts on the Special Issue ‘Border Justice:Migration and Accountability for Human Rights Violations’

We are pleased to share these new short videos highlighting key issues from the German Law Journal Special Issue 21.3 “Border Justice: Migration and Accountability for Human Rights Violations

In the inaugural German Law Journal Specials episode, editors Cathryn Costello and Itamar Mann talk to German Law Journal editor Nora Markard about the idea and the challenges behind the Special issue, and where it takes us

GLJ Short: Hard Protection through Soft Courts? Non-Refoulement before the UN Treaty Bodies

In the first #GLJShorts, Bașak Çalı, Cathryn Costello, Melanie Fink, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Itamar Mann, Lilian Tsourdi, and Yannis Kalpouzos present some of the main issues tackled in the Special Issue.

GLJ Short: Exploring the Potentials of International Criminal Law and the Right to Rescue

GLJ Short: A Topographical Approach to Accountability for Human Rights Violations

For those wanting to know more the full articles are available in open access.

GLJ Short: Holding EASO and Frontex Accountable


Human Rights of Migrants, COVID 19 and the ECHR

Governments all around the world have imposed immobility and social distancing measures as a way to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, yet responses in migration control have been highly varied.  While some borders and ports are closed, and some states have halted deportations and detention, others continue to deport unwanted migrants while they import seasonal workers. What implications do the pandemic and the responses there to have for the human rights of migrants and refugees within and outside the borders of Europe? Does the European Court of Human Rights establish adequate standards to protect the human rights of migrants and refugees in the context of COVID-19?  Is the CJEU affording better protection, while the ECtHR indulges states' migration control prerogatives? Watch the webinar held on 2nd June 2020 which brought together legal experts, including Cathryn Costello, to discuss the recent case law.