WEEK 4 THE REFUGEE PROTECTION REGIME

1
WEEK 4 THE REFUGEE PROTECTION REGIME
2
I. POLITICAL THEORY and REFUGEE LAW

• Does Refugee Law Matter?
• Immanuel Kants Reason and Hospitality
• Hannah Arendt and the Refugee Condition
• The Minority Treaties
• What Went Wrong?
• Arendts Assessment of the Minority Treaties
• A Conspiracy between Liberalism and Fascism
• Refugees as the symptomatic group in
  contemporary politics
• The Right to have Rights

3
II. THE BIG DISCUSSION

• The size and shape of human displacement in 2008

4
III. THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE REFUGEE
CONVENTION

• The 1933 International Convention on the Status
  of Refugees
• The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of
  Refugees
• The Definition
• Individualism and Negative Rights
• Temporal and Spatial Restrictions
• Cold War Context
• 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees

5
IV. THE BIG QUESTION Who is a Refugee?

• Scenario 1
• Gaith is a highly skilled Iraqi living on the
  outskirts of Baghdad. He was never really
  interested in religion but after the US
  invasion/liberation he picked up a discarded copy
  Christopher Hitchens God is not Great and became
  an atheist. He kept his conversion secret. In
  2005 after suicide bombers killed his two best
  friends Gaith decided to flee. He went to Jordan
  where he had relatives and then he paid for a
  flight to Indonesia before being smuggled by boat
  to Christmas Island. Since then Iraq has
  descended into anarchy. Is he a refugee? Does he
  deserve protection?
• Scenario 2
• A radical Islamic sect takes control of Bali and
  implements a fascistic form of Sharia law. In
  Kerobokan Prison, Australias Schapelle Corby, is
  forced to wear a veil over her head and face. She
  finds this intolerable, but uses it as a disguise
  to escape with the help of some backpackers. She
  arrives at Brisbane airport and claims asylum
  based on a) her unfair and excessive conviction
  and b) her persecution as a women. Customs
  officers discover cannabis in her luggage. Is she
  a refugee deserving protection?

6

• Living with Refugees