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Protecting the rights of refugees

9 July 2008

Dr Ingrid Boccardi from UCL London, Professor France Houle from the University of Montreal, Professor Susan Kneebone from Monash University, and Professor Francois Crepeau from the University of Montreal at the conference at Monash’s Prato Centre.

An international conference held at the Monash Prato Centre in Italy will lead to a greater understanding of the legal processes in place to determine refugee status in different countries across the world.

The conference attracted almost 100 practitioners, academics, decision makers and policy makers from more than 15 countries including Brazil, Israel and the Ukraine, which are currently developing systems for refugee status determination, and Canada and the United Kingdom, which have well-established systems.

Conference co-organiser Professor Susan Kneebone from Monash’s Faculty of Law said the conference examined the responsibilities of the states to asylum seekers under international human rights law and under the Refugee Convention.

"It also provided a forum for the exchange of practical experiences from different jurisdictions and guidance to emerging jurisdictions such as South Africa, Israel and African nations," Professor Kneebone said.

"As we would all be well aware, the trend in developed countries is to introduce increasingly restrictive measures on access to asylum procedures.

"Meanwhile, in many less-developed countries there is a crisis of asylum with many long-term refugee situations seemingly without solution."

Professor Kneebone said the conference provided delegates with a greater understanding of the context for refugee decision-making and a need to protect the rights of asylum seekers.

"The number of young scholars we attracted demonstrates the interest in refugee law as an interdisciplinary field of scholarship and the need for such a forum," she said.

Professor Kneebone said organisers would look to hold a bi-annual event to review the standards and responsibilities in relation to refugees and asylum seekers.

Find out about undertaking law studies in Italy by visiting the Monash Law Prato Program webpage.