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BIPR | Human Rights and Solidarity: The Dinosaur Couple in Refugee Protection
Human Rights and Solidarity: The Dinosaur Couple in Refugee Protection

November 25, 2019 - 18:30

Morten Kjaerum, Raul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund University, Sweden

Event Recap

The refugee crisis, human rights and solidarity are topics frequently discussed in global politics. Secondary to climate change, they are among the top priority items in European domestic and foreign policy. Despite visible progress, human rights violations continue to be a source of great pain and suffering to many individuals around the world. According to Prof. Kjaerum, if the world had done more to widely implement human rights, the refugee problems seen today would be significantly different.

It is estimated the world today has 25 million refugees. Among different reasons associated with the decision to leave, one can observe a common denominator. The absence of security and perpetuation of fear play important roles in refugees' decision-making process to leave or stay in a particular country. He made reference to a recent report from UNDP that underscores that many people leave their country of origin due to a sense of being discriminated against or due to bad governance and feeling of insecurity. This is what former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2001 pointed out when he broaden the definition of peace to include other elements beyond "the absence of war". Peace means having access to human security, fair trial, social justice, democratization, protection against torture and discrimination. Peace and development are complementary to each other. This is what is mirrored in the preamble to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that seeks "to foster peaceful, just inclusive societies which are free from fear and violence."

In order to foster human security in that sense it takes institutions, coherent rule of law based constitutions within a human rights framework. Prof. Kjaerum made reference to the research done by Timothy Snyder, who in his book Black Earth point to that "effective prevention of mass killings is incremental and its heroes are invisible". Laws, institutions, officials, judges constitute the strongest defense against human rights violations. Freedom is not the absence of the state authority but the ability to enjoy one's rights, that are respected, protected and fulfilled by institutions.

The human security approach and the SDGs are strong tools to address the need to reinforce human rights conditions and preventing refugee movements. The multilateral institutions in Geneva were created to develop and monitor norms and standards for people on the ground. It can be argued that they were indeed successfully in establishing an initial framework to human rights protection. Yet, these institutions increasingly need to join-up not only with national entities, but also regional bodies such as the African Union, the European Union and the Inter-American Commission.

According to Our World Data, the number of deaths by conflict and number of conflicts between states have significantly decreased since the end of the second world war. Which could indicate the success of the multilateral system. On the other hand, civil conflicts and foreign state interventions experienced a significant increase and in particular the former indicates a dissatisfaction of domestic policies. Prof. Kjaerum underscores the complex and multifaceted picture by showing some examples where the rule of law and the pressure from the people prevailed over the status quo. Kenya and Zimbabwe are examples of when popular discontent was supported by the rule of law and they were able to achieve change, illustrating that it is possible to abide by the human rights frameworks. There is still a long way to go in these and other countries, however a human rights based approach to governance is slowly prevailing.

Addressing movements of people today, 'climate refugees' need to be mentioned. In this case Kjaerum admits it is hard to be optimistic. He adds that he does not agree with the use of the term natural disasters because in majority of the cases, the ones that worsen the devastating effects of these phenomenon are humans themselves. In trying to defy the course of nature, society build entire cities in high risk areas that will soon lead to death and displacement. Data shows that 17 million people were displaced in 2018 due to climate change and there is a high risk that this figure will only increase and more people will be forced to cross borders. More optimistically, he adds that because humans are the ones exacerbating the consequences of climate change, it also means there is a way to solve it. By optimizing the use of human rights as an analytical tool and generally strengthen research some of the worst consequence can be avoided for now.

The ultimate priority in addressing any refugee crisis is to save lives. This is far from always implemented, Kjaerum points out there are still problems in Europe. The EU Turkey agreement on refugees is an example of how current policies potentially undermines the protection of refugees' lives. According to him, the deal led to the last stone being put in the wall between Syria and Turkey. The now 6 mio displaced persons inside Syria are trapped. The only way to get out of Syria today is by paying exorbitant prices to smugglers and travel along extremely dangerous routes into Turkey. Prof. Kjaerum reminds the audience that a similar situation occurred during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia where visas entries were denied for Bosnians coming via Croatia. Additionally, the absence of media coverage of these events amplifies their situation because it perpetuates an "out of sight out of mind" mindset.

Prof. Kjaerum concludes the panel by discussing the issue of solidarity. Without solidarity between countries and without solidarity with people in need of protection Europe and international refugee proection will be in a permanent crisis situation. In Europe there is a lot to build on in the legal framework and here he quotes the Article II from the Treaty of the European Union that affirms that states should share common values "in a society where pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail". He exemplifies how the basic solidarity has build Europe, but also how it has been eroded in recent years following the financial crisis and the growing populism and in particular islamophobia. Despite this some of the EU countries recently adopted the Malta agreement where 7 likeminded countries agreed on a solidarity approach to the rescue of people at sea and the subsequent relocation. The purpose of the agreement is to assist Italy, Malta and Spain in lifting the processing of the individual claims. In 2016 a similar relocation scheme was developed. In this way the solidarity is still alive among EU countries, but there is still a long way to go.

Prof Kjaerum ended the lecture on a hopeful note underscoring that the dinosaur couple – human rights and solidarity, is alive and the couple still make some considerable imprints on the development of the human community. Human rights have gained a global momentum the past 25 years contributing to among other things fewer major conflicts and more democratic governance. Although, there has been a push back in recent years it stands on a foundation that cannot be rolled over just like that. And the partner of human rights – solidarity, is still playing into the strategies and policies as is seen from the EU although not at all to the extent that it could have been expected. Linking this under the global SDG agenda offers according to Prof Kjaerum a possibility to create a comprehensive approach including peace, development and human rights. And linking economic, civil, cultural, political and social rights in a new manner for the first time since the end of the cold war.


Event Materials:


Full Audio:

Human Rights and Solidarity: The Dinosaur Couple in Refugee Protection
Migration Series

hosted by Professor Søren Jessen-Petersen

Morten Kjaerum
Raul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund University, Sweden

Morten Kjaerum has been Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Sweden since 2015.

Kjaerum is also currently Chair of the Board of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE). From 2008-2015, he was the first Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in Vienna.

Kjaerum was the founding Director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) from 1991 to 2008, which evolved over those 17 years from a small organisation to a large internationally recognized institution. He began his career in the non-governmental sector at the Danish Refugee Council. Kjaerum was the Chairperson of the Network of Directors of EU Agencies (2014-15), a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD, 2002-2008) as well as its follow-up rapporteur from 2006-08. He was a member of the EU network of independent experts responsible for monitoring compliance with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (2002-2006), and in 2004 was elected chair of the International Coordinating Committee for National Human Rights Institutions.

Since 1991, Kjaerum has been involved in human rights capacity building projects with governments and national institutions world-wide, and has written extensively on issues related to human rights. He is the Chairperson for the UN Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation (VFTC) in the Field of Human Rights, and of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Trust Fund for Financial and Technical Assistance.

In 2013 Kjaerum was awarded an honorary professorship at the University of Aalborg, Denmark. He holds a Master of Law from the University of Aarhus, Denmark and is a Danish national.
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