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71. Comparative perspectives on airport asylum procedures before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Author:
Regina Jefferies
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted unprecedented border restrictions and closures around the world, slowing international air travel to a fraction of its pre-pandemic levels. Yet, persecution, conflict, disasters and violence – at times exacerbated by COVID-19 –continue to displace millions of people, forcing many to seek safety in other countries. Problematically, many States’ pandemic-related border restrictions have failed to provide exceptions for refugees and people seeking asylum.1 This has not only left people at risk of serious harm but has potentially resulted in numerous instances of refoulement. Even prior to the pandemic, overlapping international legal regimes governing air travel, passenger processing and international protection created particular difficulties for refugees and people seeking asylum, who were often unable to satisfy visa or other documentary requirements.2 Arguably, these have become even more entrenched during the pandemic, especially as some States have used COVID-19 as a cover for justifying blanket restrictions. Furthermore, in practical terms, limits on ‘non-essential’ travel have drastically reduced the number of flights available and severely curtailed access to air travel. This Policy Brief examines how different countries have dealt with international protection needs during the pandemic and provides guidance moving forward. It does so by examining the pre-pandemic use of airport asylum procedures in seven different countries (Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Uganda and the United States), as well as those countries’ subsequent use of border restrictions and/or closures in response to COVID-19. By reviewing a range of different approaches, it highlights persistent issues of transparency, procedural fairness and accountability that pre-date – but have been exacerbated by – the pandemic. With respect to measures suspending or limiting air travel, it identifies a number of recommended practices to ensure that States continue to meet their international protection obligations towards refugees and asylum seekers, while also responding to public health concerns. Although human rights law permits States to impose exceptional measures in a public health emergency (which must be necessary, proportionate and reasonable, as well as non-discriminatory), international law still requires that people seeking protection are given an effective opportunity to do so. As such, no risk to public health can justify a State denying asylum seekers and refugees access to their territory without appropriate safeguards to prevent refoulement and safeguard minimum rights.
Topic:
Borders, Mobility, COVID-19, Protection, and Asylum Seekers
Political Geography:
Global Focus

72. Curbing deception - A world survey of legal restrictions of so-called ‘conversion therapies’

Author:
Lucas Ramón Mendos
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
ILGA World (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association)
Abstract:
‘Conversion therapy’ is a term describing pseudo-scientific and harmful practices used to attempt altering a person’s gender expression, gender identity or sexual orientation. In 2020, ILGA World has released a ground-breaking report on the issue: Curbing Deception is an extensive global research into laws banning ‘conversion therapies’ both at the national and subnational level. The report explores the vast field of techniques used for the purpose of attempting to alter lesbians, gays and bisexuals’ sexual orientation, to prevent trans youth from transitioning or make trans people de-transition, or to force our gender expressions and roles to align with the social binary stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. It also analyses strategies beyond legal reform to restrict these harmful practices worldwide. Experimentation and abuse have long taken place under the legitimising cloak of medicine, psychology and science. As the report details, gruesome practices – including electroshock ‘therapies’, forced internments in ‘clinics’ and exorcisms – are still applied in numerous countries, pushing people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions to living self-loathing lives, up to the extreme consequences of committing suicide. Protection from similar ineffective and cruel treatment is as urgent as ever: our report also exposes how - thanks to the tireless advocacy of activists, survivors and grassroots organisations – States, health professionals and international human rights bodies across the world are speaking up against so-called ‘conversion therapies’.
Topic:
Human Rights, Law, Reform, Regulation, LGBT+, Protection, and Conversion Therapy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

73. Protecting Stateless Refugees in the United States

Author:
David Baluarte
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Miliyon is a stateless, failed asylum seeker residing in the United States. He initially sought refugee protection after he fled Ethiopia, where he had faced serious abuse because of his Eritrean ethnicity. Immigration authorities denied him asylum after concluding that the Ethiopian government’s deportation of his Eritrean father, the seizure of his family’s land and business, and the detention and torture of Miliyon himself constituted a property dispute not protected under U.S. refugee law. Miliyon fought this denial of protection over the next decade through various appeals processes but ultimately failed. At that point, he applied for a passport at the Ethiopian embassy in Washington, D.C. and resigned himself to return home and face whatever fate awaited him. Consular officials, however, refused to issue him a passport. Despite never having set foot in Eritrea or having any other connection to the country, Miliyon was told that he was Eritrean, not Ethiopian. He was informed that he had no right to return to Ethiopia, his country of birth and the only place he had ever lived. This led the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to declare Miliyon stateless. As a victim of discriminatory denationalization, Miliyon tried to renew his application for refugee protection. Notwithstanding the fact that Miliyon had endured this persecutory treatment, U.S. authorities once again denied his claim.
Topic:
Migration, Refugees, Stateless Population, and Protection
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

74. The Broadening Protection Gap for Stateless Palestinian Refugees in Belgium

Author:
Wout Van Doren, Julie Lejeune, Marjan Claes, and Valerie Klein
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
This paper reflects upon the issue of statelessness, Palestinians and a recent evolution of Belgian caselaw. When seeking to apply the definition of a ‘stateless person’, as found in art 1 of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons to Palestinians, judges are confronted with specific challenges. Since 2016, divergent standards are developing as to the question of whether, and in which circumstances, Palestinians may be stateless for the purposes of international law. This evolution takes place in a national landscape characterised by a statelessness determination procedure that falls short of standards set out in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons in a number of areas, while a growing number of asylum seekers originating from Palestine are registered over the period 2016–19. This paper exposes, anno 2020, the protection gaps left open by the remarkably divergent approaches to this question taken by the different national actors involved.
Topic:
Territorial Disputes, Citizenship, Stateless Population, and Protection
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, Palestine, and Belgium

75. The role of complementary pathways in refugee protection

Author:
Tamara Wood
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney
Abstract:
Complementary pathways provide a significant opportunity to enhance refugees access to protection and durable solutions, and to facilitate international responsibility-sharing in the protection of refugees. They also provide potential benefits to states and communities hosting refugees, helping to address current skill and labour shortages in countries of destination and fostering positive public attitudes to refugees. However, realising these benefits requires clarity in the nature, objectives and minimum standards required of complementary pathways, and clear frameworks for implementation that will ensure that such pathways promote, and do not risk undermining, the international protection regime.
Topic:
Migration, Refugees, and Protection
Political Geography:
Global Focus

76. Assessing Protection Claims at Airports: Developing procedures to meet international and domestic obligations

Author:
Regina Jefferies, Daniel Ghezelbash, and Asher Hirsch
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney
Abstract:
The policy for assessing claims for refugee and complementary protection at Australian airports needs to be reformed to ensure that those in need of protection are identified and not returned to harm. The current procedures, called ‘entry screening’, set out a streamlined process for assessing refugee and complementary protection claims with no access to review. This Policy Brief argues that they prioritise visa cancellations, mandatory detention and removal over protection needs.3 This Policy Brief finds that Australia’s entry screening process and treatment of travellers who seek protection at Australian airports raise significant questions regarding fairness, transparency, efficiency and compatibility with the international and domestic legal frameworks of humanitarian protection. This Policy Brief critically analyses the legal and operational framework for handling protection claims made by people at Australian airports in light of Australia’s international protection obligations. It also examines the domestic legal framework which is claimed to provide the basis for airport screening procedures and through which Australia’s protection obligations are supposed to be given effect. This Policy Brief finds serious issues concerning transparency, legality and accountability, which require better Parliamentary intervention and oversight.
Topic:
Refugees, Mobility, Airports, and Protection
Political Geography:
Australia

77. Protecting Women Peacebuilders: The Front Lines of Sustainable Peace

Author:
Melinda Holmes, Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini, and Stacey Schamber
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN)
Abstract:
This report distills the range of threats to women peacebuilders, analyzes existing protection mechanisms, and provides guidance to protect women peacebuilders.
Topic:
Civil Society, Women, Peacebuilding, and Protection
Political Geography:
Global Focus

78. Lessons Learned from the First Generation of UN Investigative Mechanisms for Future Criminal Accountability: Considerations for CSO engagement with the United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar

Author:
Ferencz International Justice Initiative
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Abstract:
1. The struggle for justice and accountability in Burma/Myanmar (hereinafter Myanmar1 ) has reached a milestone. Until now, concrete steps to address impunity for the most serious international crimes committed by the military—including well-documented patterns of mass atrocities indicating war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide—have largely been ad hoc, partial, or symbolic. In 2018, however, Member States of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council took the extraordinary step to pursue justice and accountability with the establishment of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM). While there is no guarantee that the IIMM process will lead to meaningful accountability, it provides the best chance to date. The engagement of CSOs with the IIMM will be an essential part of the process. 2. This Report is designed primarily to inform and assist CSOs from Myanmar that may wish to engage with the IIMM. Based on desk research and interviews with UN staff and CSOs working with similar mechanisms in other contexts, the Report aims to help CSOs from Myanmar better appreciate what to expect in terms of the risks, benefits, and the various forms of engagement with the IIMM. The Report can also assist IIMM staff to build the best possible relationship with CSOs from Myanmar. 3. The Ferencz International Justice Initiative consulted UN staff and civil society activists working at, or engaged with, the following investigative mechanisms (collectively referred to as “the Mechanisms”) 2 : • Syria: The International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes Under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic Since March 2011 (Syria IIIM); • South Sudan: The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan (CHRSS); and • Iraq: UN Investigative Team for Accountability of Da’esh (UNITAD)
Topic:
Security, United Nations, Accountability, Justice, Investigations, and Protection
Political Geography:
Southeast Asia, Myanmar, and Global Focus

79. CAN TURKEY PROTECT THE UIGHURS?

Author:
Emir Yazici
Publication Date:
02-2019
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Political Violence @ A Glance
Abstract:
Several international actors have condemned China’s ongoing massive assimilation campaign of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. Turkey was not among the states who condemned China until rumors emerged about the death of Uighur poet and musician Abdurehim Heyit on February 7. In an official statement, the Turkish government described the events in Xinjiang as a “policy of systematic assimilation” and a “great shame for humanity.” Immediately after this statement, a video was released by China Radio International’s Turkish-language service which features Abdurehim Heyit stating that he is in good health and in the process of being investigated for violating national laws. The long-awaited reaction by Turkey—a powerful ethnic kin of the Uighurs—is more important than the rest of the international community. Here’s why.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Uyghurs, and Protection
Political Geography:
China, Turkey, Middle East, and Asia

80. FORCE VS. LEGITIMACY: UN PEACEKEEPING AND PROTECTING CIVILIAN LIVES

Author:
Anup Phayal
Publication Date:
04-2019
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Political Violence @ A Glance
Abstract:
In recent years, protection of civilians has become a key mandate for UN peacekeeping missions. A number of studies show that deploying peacekeepers in a post-conflict country can sustain the peace and lower violence against civilians. For this reason, there is a growing consensus to increase the military capacity of peacekeepers, not only to deter potential perpetrators, but also to conduct counter-insurgency style operations against spoilers of peace (see here, here and here). Yet, the core principles of peacekeeping—such as neutrality, minimal use of force, and dialogue—are incompatible with the preference for a military-centric approach, even though interventions today warrant some degree of coercive capacity against armed violence by opportunist actors. Furthermore, participating troops in “peacekeeping” missions often have less incentive to take risk by fighting against local actors. In light of this complexity, it is difficult to assess how military peacekeepers can best achieve the goal of civilian protection.
Topic:
United Nations, Peacekeeping, Legitimacy, Civilians, and Protection
Political Geography:
Global Focus