Comparative Regional Protection Frameworks for Refugees by Susan Kneebone

Author:Susan Kneebone [Kneebone, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138637023
Google: DcZkvgAACAAJ
Goodreads: 32834408
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-01-15T07:34:38+00:00

Introduction

In November 2008, over 110 participants from around 70 civil society groups and organisations based in 13 countries in the Asia Pacific region met in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the protection of refugees. It was an unprecedented gathering. Service providers, advocacy groups, lawyers and refugee community-based organisations in countries of asylum – such as Malaysia, Thailand, India, Nepal, Japan, South Korea and Australia – met human rights groups and activists in refugee-producing countries such as Myanmar, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Organisations located in different countries serving refugees from the same country of origin were able to share their experiences, compare notes and discuss the challenges they faced. Previously isolated in their work, championing issues with little domestic traction in their own countries, they experienced unexpected camaraderie.

The issues of their concern were – and indeed continue to be – pressing. In spite of the presence of millions of refugees and the existence of some of the largest and most protracted encampment situations in the world, only a minority of states in the Asia Pacific region are party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.1 There are no regional conventions that explicitly recognise the rights of refugees.2 Further, most states neither have domestic legislation recognising refugees nor functioning national asylum systems. Without formal legal recognition, many refugees have been treated as irregular migrants and have been subject to arrest, detention, punishment for immigration offences and deportation. Many refugees have been forced to eke out a living in the shadow economy, suffering violations of their labour and human rights. Some have languished indefinitely in immigration detention centres and prisons without access to protection. Some have fallen prey to traffickers in search of safety. In India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Thailand, hundreds of thousands of refugees have been kept indefinitely in overcrowded refugee camps.

At the conference, participants expressed joy and surprise at meeting like-minded people, having felt alone and alienated in their work. They also shared common frustrations and concerns – with their governments, with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and with fellow citizens unsympathetic to the protection of refugees. The participants discussed a range of issues – from the challenges involved in gaining government recognition of the status and rights of refugees, to the abuses refugees face in detention, to the specific risks that women and children experience, and the inability of refugees to gain access to health care.3 A unanimous observation at the conference was that it was crucial for states in the region to protect refugees. To achieve this aim, the participants resolved to stay connected and to work together – the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) was born.

How do local civil society actors work together to facilitate the adoption of new norms amongst states? What are the challenges they face in facilitating ‘norm emergence’ on issues with little domestic traction and for which there are well-developed international norms? How does the formation and formalisation of a transnational advocacy network

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