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Fifty Million Refugees and Displaced People
Not since World War II have there been more than fifty million refugees and displaced people in the world. On 19 June 2014 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced that this total had been exceeded in 2013. Half of those displaced are children.The primary cause of this increase in human suffering are violent conflict in places such as Syria, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. With fifty million refugees and displaced people in the world it is fair to call it a global crisis. yet the global response has been business as usual. Some countries have actually reduced their refugee quotas despite the global crisis.
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Three reasons for Abandoning Mandatory Detention
A paper delivered at a roundtable on alternatives to detention held in Canberra, June 9 – 10, 2011 By Penelope Mathew Freilich Foundation Professor The Australian National University Why does mandatory detention of asylum seekers continue in Australia when there are alternatives? In this short presentation, I invite people to think about three important issues that shape the debate about Australia’s policy of mandatory detention – legality, proportionality and risk. I begin with legality, because it is clear that one of the obstacles to alternatives to detention is the perception that unauthorized arrivals seeking asylum have acted illegally. One reason for this perception is that human rights law speaks with…
