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CAHR staff invited to give closing keynote at Toronto short course on refugee issues

Posted on 2 May 2012

Martin Jones is addressing access to justice for refugees in his closing keynote at the Centre for Refugee Studies

Martin Jones, a lecturer in international human rights law at the Centre for Applied Human Rights, has been invited to give the closing keynote address of the Centre for Refugee Studies's 16th annual Summer Course on Refugee and Forced Migration Issues in Toronto. The title of his address will be "From refugee law to the law of asylum: Strengthening access to justice for refugees." The address will be based on his ongoing research and work with civil society on refugee protection in Egypt and Asia and will centre around the proposition that the Refugee Convention can only ever provide a starting point for refugee protection - and that even in its absence there are protection opportunities arising from a more expansive understanding of states' legal obligation towards those seeking international protection (understood as a broader "law of asylum"). The Summer Course will be held at York University in Toronto from 6 to 12 May 2012.

Martin conducts research and teaching at the CAHR on refugee and migration law and policy. One of his main areas of research at present is the reconception, both theoretically and operationally, of refugee law based upon both the legal obligations of states and practices of legal aid organisations in the Global South.

At the time of its founding in 1988, the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University in Toronto became the second centre of its kind in the world, following the Refugee Studies Centre created at the University of Oxford. It has since developed an international reputation for interdisciplinary and collaborative work and is one of the largest and most active centres focusing on refugee studies in the world. The Summer Course is one of the longest running and best attended short courses on refugee issues in the world. Participants typically include government officials, non-government organization personnel, university faculty, and graduate students.

^{Image: Centre for Refugee Studies, York University, Toronto}