Law Commons^™

The Risks To Refugee Law Of Humanitarian Responses To Flight From Ukraine, Catherine Dauvergne

All Faculty Publications

The invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022 provoked an enormous exodus of people fleeing to safety by crossing Ukrainian borders into neighbouring states to seek refuge. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that as of mid-May 2023 more than eight million people had fled the conflict in Ukraine and crossed a border into another European state, and more than five million of these people were registered for temporary protection of some sort. Many of these people were warmly welcomed, and further-flung states raised their hands to provide assistance and refuge as well. Support for these …

Lessons Of The Past And The Humanitarian Outreach Of Poland To Ukrainian Refugees, Karin Mika

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The reaction of Poland and its people is a refreshing departure from the historic blood rivalries of the past. This is similarly true of both Romania and Hungary; however, it is Poland that has absorbed the majority of Ukrainian refugees and Poland that has the most historically contentious relationship with Ukraine. Poland’s current humanitarian efforts with respect to its Ukrainian neighbors is evidence that some lessons have been learned from the past. Perhaps there is hope that some of the centuries old blood feuding can come to an end and countries can better work toward cooperative relationships in the future.

Parameters Summer 2022, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Dysfunctional Warfare: The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine, Rob Johnson

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was based on false premises, faulty assumptions, and a weak strategy. As the conflict has unfolded, heavy losses have imposed a strain on available Russian manpower. The Russian army reached a culminating point outside Kyiv and has exhibited little sign of operational learning. By contrast, Ukrainians have fought an existential war, making good use of dispersed light infantry tactics with high motivation levels. Western support has allowed them to compensate for their deficiencies in armaments and munitions. This commentary also shows military and policy leaders how the political context continues to impose limitations on the Ukrainians.

Unrwa And Palestine Refugees, Susan M. Akram

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter studies the relationship between Palestinian refugees and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). UNRWA’s role is to provide humanitarian ‘relief’ and to provide economic opportunities—‘works’—for refugees in the areas of major displacement: the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. Initially, the definition of Palestine refugee for UNRWA’s purposes was a sub-category of the United Nations Conciliation Commission on Palestine definition for purposes of relief provision, but it also included other categories of persons displaced from later conflicts. Following the passage of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, the …

Temporary Protection Status: A Yugoslavian Precedent, Medina Dzubur

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Analyzing the past use of temporary protection status to shield those facing "ethnic cleansing, massacres, mass rapes, and cultural vandalism" is fundamental in understanding how this tool can be utilized to protect modern refugees, and why EU members have refused to implement this status further. In other words, should temporary protection status, considering the legal framework and the socioeconomic effects, be granted to Syrian refugees? This note argues in favor of granting temporary protection status to Syrian refugees because the status (1) offers a recourse for displaced persons that would not be covered by traditional legal protections, (2) produces quicker …

Justice In Syria: Individual Criminal Liability For Highest Officials In The Assad Regime, Seema Kassab

Michigan Journal of International Law

Seven years have passed since revolution broke out in Syria in March of 2011. During those six years, hundreds of thousands of Syrians lost their lives, millions of Syrians were internally displaced or left the country seeking refuge, and a beautiful and diverse country was hijacked and terrorized by civil war. Every day in Syria, people are detained, tortured, raped, and killed. Attacks on homes, hospitals, markets, and schools are common occurrences. At this stage of the conflict, there is little doubt that it is the most horrific and dire humanitarian crisis since World War II. The conflict began as …

Contemporary Practice Of The United States Relating To International Law, Kristina Daugirdas, Julian Davis Mortenson

Articles

In this section: • Trump Administration Takes Steps to Implement Bilateral Agreement with Australia Regarding Refugees • Trump Administration Criticizes NATO Members for Failing to Meet Defense Spending Guideline; United States Joins Other NATO Members in Supporting Montenegro’s Membership in the Organization • President Trump Issues Executive Orders Suspending Refugee Program and Barring Entry by Individuals from Specified Countries • Trump Administration Maintains Nuclear Deal with Iran, Despite Persistent Skepticism • United States Strikes Syrian Government Airbase in Response to Chemical Weapons Attacks by Syrian Forces; Two Additional Strikes on Syrian Government Forces Justified by Defense of Troops Rationale • …

Constructing Citizenship Through War In The Human Rights Era, Timothy W. Waters

Articles by Maurer Faculty

War's historical relationship to the creation of territorial nation-states is well known, but what empirical and normative role does war play in creating the citizen in a modern democracy? Although contemporary theories of citizenship and human rights do not readily acknowledge a legitimate, generative function for war - as evidenced by restrictions on aggression, annexation of occupied territory, expulsions, denationalization, or derogation of fundamental rights - an empirical assessment of state practice, including the interpretation of international legal obligations, suggests that war plays a powerfully transformative role in the construction of citizenship, and that international law and norms implicitly accept …

Reframing The Archive: Vietnamese Refugee Narratives In The Post-9/11 Period, Mai-Linh Hong

Faculty Journal Articles

This article considers how recent narratives about Vietnamese refugees engage with the Vietnam War’s visual archive, particularly iconic photographs from the war and ensuing “boat people” crisis, and contribute to present-day discourses on American militarism and immigration. The article focuses on two texts, a National Public Radio special series about a US naval ship (2010) and Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out & Back Again (2011), which recounts a Vietnamese child’s refugee passage. By refiguring famous photojournalistic images from the war, the radio series advances a familiar rescue-and-gratitude narrative in which the US military operates as a care apparatus, exemplifying a cultural …

The Smiling, The Sick, The Suffereing: Snapshots Of Syrian Displacement, Karlee Anna Bergendorff

Honors Theses

Photographic images of Syrian refugees - smiling, sick, or suffering - on the news and in the ads of human rights organizations have been employed to mobilize governments, armies, or businesses. These images are effective in mobilizing various forms of support or intervention because they have a strong emotional impact on the mass public. The emotionally driven connection between spectator and refugee, however, raises some troubling questions about whose interests the images serve, and how they are used for various efforts. Is it possible to depict the suffering of Syrian refugees without violating their dignity, agency, and autonomy? I argue …

Italy’S Refugee Burden And The Role Of The Eu In Asylum Cases, Sara R. Bias

Student Publications

Italy's unique geographic location at the coast of the Mediteranean Sea gives much opportunity for the international community to criticize its dealings with asylum seekers crossing the body of water to enter Europe. The UNHCR reported that as of October 2014, 165,000 asylum seekers had taken dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea; of those 165,000 people, Italy received 140,000.

Comments: Stuck Between A Rock And A Hard Place: Does Lebanon Have A Responsibility To Respect Syrian Refugees?, Robert Demirji

University of Baltimore Journal of International Law

This comment looks at the current crisis in Syria and its effect on Lebanon. This comment first looks at the recent history of Lebanon stemming from the entrance of Palestinians into Lebanon after their deportation of Israel to Lebanon today. Thereafter, this comment looks at the evolution of the responsibility to protect doctrine from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to the 2005 World Summit Outcome Report to the 2009 Secretary General Report on Responsibility to Protect. This comment addresses the role of both Lebanon and the international community in its responsibility to protect Syrian refugees. This comment concludes with …

Who Counts? Refugees And The Politics Of Indifference, Sonia Cardenas

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The contemporary plight of refugees, asylum seekers, and other marginalized groups reveals the limits of international human rights norms. Numerous internationally recognized standards and laws exist for the humane treatment of people. Yet despite enormous progress, the reality is that some people are simply deemed to be less fully human than others. Nationalism and racism underlie popular indifference to today’s unwanted refugees. This is the unspoken truth that lies at the heart of the global refugee problem.

The Least We Can Do, Susan E. Waltz

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the early months of 2003, when the U.S. was only threatening war, humanitarian relief organizations expected thousands of refugees to flee from Iraq into neighboring countries of Jordan and Syria. They were surprised when it did not happen. Four years later, the anticipated wave has at last arrived—and in tsunami proportions.

Iraqi Resettlement: Why Congress Will Act, David A. Weinberg

Human Rights & Human Welfare

I would like to commend Human Rights & Human Welfare for their recent roundtable on the Iraqi refugee crisis. The Roundtable rightly draws attention to the United States government’s woefully inadequate efforts thus far to address a major humanitarian crisis of its own making.

However, I do not agree with Professor Daniel Whelan’s assessment of “why Congress won’t act” on Iraqi resettlement. Dr. Whelan argues that the new Congress appears reluctant to resettle a reasonable number of Iraqi refugees in danger because Democrats fear that doing so would precipitate Iraqi state failure by means of “brain drain.” Instead, I would …

October Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“No Refuge Here: Iraqis Flee, but Where?” by Joseph Huff-Hannon. Dissent. Summer 2007.

Would Iraqi Refugees Please Disappear, Richard A. Falk

Human Rights & Human Welfare

I am grateful to Joseph Huff-Hannon for drawing our attention vividly and movingly to the plight of Iraqi refugees, its magnitude and cruelty. There are more than two million Iraqi refugees, with an estimated 50,000 per month added to the total. Many are languishing in terrible conditions in such neighboring countries as Syria and Jordan. These states, neither of which are notable as places of refuge, lack the capabilities for humane treatment even if their governments were altruistically inclined. Many Iraqis cannot even find such refuge, and remain hapless nomads in search of a sanctuary country. The U.S. refusal to …

Will Refuge Continue To Be Elusive, Katherine Gockel

Human Rights & Human Welfare

According to U.N. estimates, if current trends continue, the number of Iraqi asylum seekers by year-end could reach between 40,000 to 50,000. The influx of Iraqis into states such as Syria and Jordan also threatens to be a destabilizing force in those countries. Therefore, it is unreasonable to expect these states to individually cope with migration flows of this magnitude.

Iraqi Resettlement: Why Congress Won't Act, Daniel J. Whelan

Human Rights & Human Welfare

After making an excellent case for the plight of Iraqi asylum seekers who have served as valuable allies to the United States in Iraq, Joseph Huff-Hannon’s article suggests that Congress should play a stronger role in developing a resettlement policy to allow Iraqis, who have been on “our side,” to come to the U.S. Given the current political climate on Iraq—and with Congressional Democrats desperate to score some kind of victory in its battle with the Bush White House—what exactly is holding them back?

Fleeing From Violence Versus Fleeing From Poverty, Michael Goodhart

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Nour al Khal worked as a translator for New York Times reporter Steven Vincent, who was murdered by Shiite militants in Iraq. Vincent’s widow has been trying to help al Khal (who was kidnapped and shot by the same group who killed Vincent) win asylum in the United States. So far political and bureaucratic obstacles have proven insurmountable.

Ali Wyne On The Economic Life Of Refugees By Karen Jacobsen. Bloomfield, Ct: Kumarian Press, 2005. 131pp., Ali Wyne

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Economic Life of Refugees by Karen Jacobsen. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2005. 131pp.

The Turn To International Protection: Examining The Relationship Between Humanitarian Intervention And Internal Displacement, James I. Pearce

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between two phenomena that are products of the move towards increased international protection during the 1990s.

Humanitarian Inviolability In Crisis: The Meaning Of Impartiality And Neutrality For U.N. And Ngo Agencies Following The 2003-2004 Afghanistan And Iraq Conflicts, Kenneth Anderson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Introduction. Humanitarian inviolability is the ability of humanitarian relief agencies, whether official agencies such as the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or private organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to act in situations of extreme human need and suffering, particularly in circumstances of armed conflict, with the assurance that their personnel, their property, and their activities will not be made the object of attack. It is a concept that is at the core of all humanitarian relief work, especially during war, when the cooperation of the belligerent parties is essential …

Orientalism Revisited In Asylum And Refugee Claims, Susan M. Akram

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the stereotyping of Islam both by advocates and academics in refugee rights advocacy. The article looks at a particular aspect of this stereotyping, which can be seen as ‘neo-Orientalism’ occurring in the asylum and refugee context, particularly affecting women, and the damage that it does to refugee rights both in and outside the Arab and Muslim world. The article points out the dangers of neo-orientalism in framing refugee law issues, and asks for a more thoughtful and analytical approach by Western refugee advocates and academics on the panoply of Muslim attitudes and Islamic thought affecting applicants for …

The Right To Return Under International Law Following Mass Dislocation: The Bosnia Precedent?, Eric Rosand

Michigan Journal of International Law

On the night of May 2, 1997, some twenty-five abandoned Serb houses were set on fire in the Croat-controlled municipality of Drvar, part of the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was clear from all the circumstances that Croats organized the arson of houses in Drvar to obstruct the return of the original Serb residents to the area. Croat authorities then made a concerted effort to resettle displaced Croats in Drvar in order to solidify a stretch of "ethnically-pure" territory adjacent to the Republic of Croatia. These displaced Bosnian Serbs are just a few of the estimated 2.3 million …