This event has been POSTPONED
Forced Displacement: The 1951 Refugee Convention and Principled Pragmatism
The unprecedented movement of people forcibly displaced in their own country or seeking international protection threatens the credibility of the 1951 Refugee Convention and national asylum systems. The international obligation of nations to ensure access to asylum has become one of the top political issues globally, prompting many governments to adopt extreme policies, pushing back boats, mandatory detention of asylum seeker children and their families, closing borders and shifting responsibility to poor, less developed nations.
Gillian Triggs, Former UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, and former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, will discuss credibility challenges to the UN 1951 Refugee Convention posed by the current unprecedented global flows of asylum seekers. With special attention to the plight of children in mandatory detention, she will explore ad hoc solutions emerging from civil society, NGOs, faith and community groups, international financial institutions, the private sector and local government.
This talk forms part of Armed Conflicts and Im/Mobility Week, a special grants initiative of Global Arts and Humanities.
Speaker
Professor Emerita Gillian Triggs has recently completed her 4-year appointment as a UN Assistant Secretary General and Assistant High Commissioner for Protection with UNHCR. Prior to taking up this role, she was President of the Australian Human Rights Commission from 2012-17, President of the Asian Development Bank’s Administrative Tribunal and Chair of the UN Independent Expert panel on Abuse of Office and Harassment in UNAIDS. Gillian was Dean of the Faculty of Law and Challis Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney, 2007-12, and Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law 2005-7. She is the author of many books and papers, the most recent being Speaking Up (Melbourne University Publishing 2018). She was awarded an inaugural Ruth Bader Ginsburg medal in 2021 and in 2023, the American Society of International Law declared her the “Woman of the Year.”