Non-signatory States in International Refugee Law
Professor Maja Janmyr (Professor in International Migration Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo)
Wednesday, 19 February 2025, 5pm to 6pm
Seminar Room 1, Oxford Department of International Development, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB
RSC Public Seminar Series, Hilary term 2025
Series convened by Professor Tom Scott-Smith and Professor Catherine Briddick
About the seminar
We are at a critical juncture in the development and application of international refugee law. On the one hand, the continued relevance of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol has come under doubt, and political and scholarly debates about ‘the end’ of the global refugee protection regime are ongoing. On the other hand, major refugee-hosting countries in several regions of the world are not parties to the Convention and Protocol, leading mainstream scholarship and practice to often view them or their regions as an ‘exception’ to international refugee law.
The BEYOND project at the University of Oslo seeks to challenge these rhetorics by asking: How does the Refugee Convention impact on and inform the relevant laws and practices of non-signatory states? To what extent and how do non-signatory states engage with international refugee law, and how and what do these states contribute to that body of law? Drawing on these questions, the talk will present tentative findings from the BEYOND project to make the argument that the Refugee Convention not only continues to be relevant, but that it also plays important roles in shaping responses to refugees in many non-signatory states.
About the speaker
Maja Janmyr is Professor of International Migration Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo. Focusing mainly on Lebanon and the broader Middle East, Janmyr’s work takes a historical and socio-legal approach to international law, examining in particular how refugees and asylum-seekers understand and engage with legal norms and institutions, and how international refugee law is interpreted and implemented in local contexts.
She is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Refugee Law and is chair of the University of Oslo’s Scholars at Risk committee. Janmyr has received several awards and recognitions for her work, including the Fridtjof Nansen medal of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. She has led several large research projects, and currently holds a Starting Grant from the European Research Council for the project “Protection without Ratification? International Refugee Law beyond States Parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention (BEYOND)” (2021-2026).
The seminar will be followed by drinks in the Hall.
Registration not required.
All enquiries should be directed to rsc-outreach@qeh.ox.ac.uk.