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(B)Orders Workshop: Refugee Communities in the Middle East - Protection or Discrimination? A Critical Perspective

When: Monday, November 27, 2023, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Where: Online or Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS), Queen Mary University of London, 67-69 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3JB

This workshop brings together top academic experts specialising on the rights and realities of refugee communities in the Middle East. The purpose is to critically assess and debate unfolding events as well as the effects of ambivalent policies implemented in the region by States, UN agencies and the international community at large.

The vast majority of States in the Middle East are not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or 1967 Protocol. Yet, the region hosts an unmatched number of refugee communities that have experienced and continue to face long-term displacement including Palestinians, Kurds, Iraqis, and Syrians. One of the reasons these communities have not been able to access durable protection is due to the continuing persecution and discrimination they encounter when seeking protection in neighbouring countries, combining different forms of violence, exclusion, and marginalisation on myriad grounds, including nationality, gender, and religion, as well as their intersection.

On consideration of current developments in the region, this workshop reflects on how forced displacement and discrimination converge in the context of refugee communities in the Middle East, exploring several important questions from a critical perspective informed by feminist theory and decolonial approaches to law:

  • What are the roots of their persecution and discrimination?
  • How does violence and oppression perpetuate and maintain forced displacement?
  • Is international (refugee) law the answer or part of the problem?
  • Which perspectives does the regional refugee regime in the Middle East offer?

Programme

Welcome and Introduction

Professor Violeta Moreno-Lax, Founding Director of the (B)OrderS Centre at Queen Mary University of London & Ramón y Cajal Professorial Research Fellow, Universitat de Barcelona

Speakers

  • Professor Susan Akram (Boston): Palestinians Refugees and their Status in Arab Countries
  • Professor Dallal Stevens (Warwick): Syrian and Iraqi Refugees Fleeing to Neighbouring States
  • Mrs Malak Benslama-Dabdoub (Royal Holloway): Kurdish Refugees and Their Struggle for Self-determination
  • Professor Michael Lynk, (University of Western Ontario / former UN Special Rapporteur for the Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967): A Reflection on Current Realities on the Ground: Insights from the oPt and Wider Region

About (B)OrderS: Centre for the Legal Study of Borders, Migration and Displacement

Founded in 2022, the (B)Orders Centre focuses on the study of bordering, ordering and othering processes through law. It constitutes an excellence hub for intellectual collaboration and the evaluation of the role of law in the making and unmaking of borders and their impact on global (im)mobility. It connects scholars within and beyond Queen Mary Law School to harness existing inter- and multi-disciplinary research into law, borders and (im)mobility and shape future policy and research agendas in response to global challenges.

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