Call for Papers: Special Edition of Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law on the 2015 Andaman Sea Crisis

The Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and the Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law invites proposals for articles to be included in a special edition of the Journal marking 5 years since the Andaman Sea ‘crisis’ of mid-2015. The purpose of this special edition is to provide high quality peer-reviewed scholarly articles reflecting on the events of 2015 and subsequent developments, including the exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar in 2017, from a range of national and regional perspectives. 

     Authors wishing to contribute an article are invited to submit a short abstract/proposal (max 1 page) for consideration for inclusion in the special edition. Proposals should include: 

• a working title;
• an overview of the article’s content and argument;
• a brief discussion of how the proposed article makes an original contribution or offers a new perspective to existing literature on the topic; and
• the name, affiliation and contact details of all authors.

   Proposals are due by 2 March 2020. Authors of successful proposals will be notified in mid-March 2020, and final articles will be due in July 2020. Articles should be 7000 words maximum in length (including references), plus an abstract, and should follow the OSCOLA (4th edn.) standard for the citation of legal authorities. Publication in the Journal will be subject to the outcome of the peer review process. The special edition will be published in early 2021. To submit your proposal and for more information, please contact Madeline Gleeson at madeline.gleeson@unsw.edu.au.

Isabella Seif & Kelley Loper on How the UN Compact on Refugees Can Address the Rohingya Crisis (Asia Global Online)

"How the UN Compact on Refugees Can Address the Rohingya Crisis"
Isabella Seif & Kelley Loper 
Asia Global Online

28 November 2019

One year since the United Nations adopted the Global Compact on Refugees, Isabella Seif and Kelley Loper of The University of Hong Kong examine the impact of the non-binding framework and how it might be applied to address the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

    The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in December 2018. These resolutions are milestones that signal the international community’s embrace of a more comprehensive response to the dramatic increase of forced migrants over the past several years. While neither instrument is legally binding, they contain important political commitments that states around the world, including governments in Asia, have accepted. They affirm the global nature of the problem and the need to devise collaborative, longer-term, practical solutions. The Refugee Compact in particular emphasizes international cooperation and responsibility sharing “to better protect and assist refugees and support host countries and communities”... Click here to read the full text. 

Kelley Loper Presents Keynote Speech at Two-Day Rohingya Refugees Conference at Dhaka University

"Int'l human rights law the only reasonable framework"
2 September 2018

The implementation of international human rights law is the only reasonable framework on the safe, voluntary, and dignified return of Rohingya refugees in line with international standards, said speakers at an international conference on Rohingya crisis yesterday.

     The criminology department of Dhaka University organised the two-day conference titled “Rohingya: Politics, Ethnic Cleansing and Uncertainty” at the Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building of the university.

     Assistant professor of Hong Kong University Kelley Loper presented the keynote titled "The Rohingya, the search for solution and the potential of international human rights law" at the conference.

     “In light of the recent persecution on Rohingya people, the persistence of serious human rights violation and protracted displacement of them, several scholars have criticised the human rights movement for failing to play an active role during the time,” said Kelley in her keynote.

     Only the international human rights law provides a pragmatic, practical and principled framework for anchoring and informing more effective and realistic responses to such human rights violation, she said.

     The professor said the process of implementing the law is long and drawn out, involves complex interactions among a range of actors at the international, regional and domestic levels.

     “But human rights law nevertheless provides and indispensable roadmap that may, hopefully, eventually persuade and deliver real change, and overdue justice,” she added... Click here to read the full news report.  For other press coverage of this event, see bdnews24.com, New Age, Dhaka Tribune, and dainikshiksha.com.