No country of asylum: 'legitimizing' Lebanon's rejection of the 1951 Refugee Convention

Seminar Room 3, Oxford Department of International Development,
3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB

Seminar series convenor: Dr Lilian Tsourdi

About the seminar

How do States 'legitimize' their non-ratification of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees? This talk will examine the case of Lebanon, a country frequently hailed by the international community for its generosity towards refugees, and currently hosting the highest number of refugees in the world in proportion to its population size. While Lebanon engaged actively in the establishment of the international refugee regime, it has long insisted that it is not a country of asylum and steadfastly rejects ratification of the major refugee law instruments. Based on field research in Lebanon, the talk will explore four main arguments as to why Lebanon continues to resist ratification of the 1951 Refugee Convention and its Protocol.

About the speaker
Maja Janmyr is Professor of International Migration Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo. Her research interests are broadly in the fields of international migration law and socio-legal approaches to international law, with a particular focus on the Middle East. Janmyr holds a PhD in International Law from the University of Bergen in Norway, and is also an affiliated scholar at the American University of Beirut. Janmyr has published widely on a range of refugee law issues, including the book Protecting Civilians in Refugee Camps: Unwilling and Unable States, UNHCR and International Responsibility (Brill, 2014).

Light refreshments will be provided after the event.  

For further information see here.