Climate Emergency, Refugee Protection & Externalisation Policies


Refugee Protection in Times of the Climate Emergency: The Role of Externalisation Policies

Welcome to a Public Lecture by Dr. Matthew Scott, with comments by Carl Söderbergh. Chair: Gregor Noll.

In January 2020, the UN Human Rights Committee ruled that people who flee the effects of climate change and disasters should not be returned to their country of origin if essential human rights would be at risk on return. At the same time, powerful states are stopping refugee movements in their tracks, often referring them to protection in transit states that undercut their human rights. Will the recognition of climate-related motives for flight be met by another round of externalization policies? Or will the intensifying debate on the climate emergency challenge their legitimacy?

Matthew Scott is Senior Researcher, Head of People on the Move Thematic Area, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund. He has recently published Climate Change, Disasters and the Refugee Convention (CUP 2020).

Carl Söderbergh is Director of Policy and Communications at Minority Rights Group International (MRG), London. He has recently researched the impact of the climate crisis on a fisher community in Senegal and acted as senior editor on MRG’s latest annual report focusing on climate justice.

Gregor Noll is Professor of International Law, The School of Business, Economics and Law, Gothenburg.

This public event is funded by the Jean Monnet Erasmus+ Network The Comparative Network on Refugee Externalisation Policies (CONREP), an international, interdisciplinary network of experts from six universities in Australia and Europe, of which the Department of Law at Gothenburg University is part.

For questions: send an mail to victoria.malmquist@law.gu.se Place: Zoom, Link for registration will be posted closer to the date.

När: 23 september 2020 16:15 - 23 september 2020 18:00

Var: / Digital

Arrangör: University of Gothenburg, The School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg och Handel

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