Kaldor Centre Unsw

Forced to flee Bhutan as a refugee, Om Dhungel is today an award-winning community leader in Western Sydney and a debut author, whose new book is described by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as simply ‘a great Australian story’. This special panel event was held on 18 May 2023, with Om Dhungel and CEO of Settlement Services International (SSI) Violet Roumeliotis AM, in conversation exploring what we all can learn – about refugee leadership, wellbeing, and belonging – from this story of grit and hope. Moderated by Kaldor Centre Director Jane McAdam AO, the event celebrated the publication of 'Bhutan to Blacktown: Losing everything and finding Australia' (NewSouth, 2023) by Om Dhungel with James Button. Presented in partnership with New South Books, Settlement Services International, Community Migrant Resources Centre, SydWest Multicultural Services and the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.

Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO talks to Julia Morris about her new book, 'Asylum and Extraction in the Republic of Nauru' on 23 February 2023. This book provides an extraordinary glimpse into Nauru’s offshore processing arrangement and its impact on islanders, workforces, and migrant populations. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Nauru, Australia, and Geneva, as well as the archives of the British Phosphate Commission, Julia Morris charts the country’s colonial connection to phosphate through to a new industrial sector in asylum. She explores how this extractive industry is peopled by an ever-shifting cast of refugee lawyers, social workers, clinicians, policy makers, and academics globally and how the very structures of Nauru’s colonial phosphate industry, and the legacy of the ‘phosphateer’ era, made it easy for a new human extractive sector to take root on the island. The book also highlights the institutional fabric, discourses, and rhetoric that inform the governance of migration around the world. Mo

UNSW’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS) co-hosted a discussion held on 9 February 2023 with Behrouz Boochani, as he concluded his first visit to Australia. The discussion explored Behrouz’s complicated path to freedom, and the role of courage, collaboration and creativity in challenging a dehumanising asylum system. The first part of the panel featured Madeline Gleeson (Kaldor Centre) and Zaki Haidari (Amnesty International) with Behrouz’s translator and collaborator, Moones Mansoubi, and Guardian Australia’s Ben Doherty. In the second part of the discussion, Behrouz Boochani and Omid Tofighian join Moones Mansoubi and Ben Doherty for a discussion about the new book, Freedom, Only Freedom (Bloomsbury 2022), and the liberating power of writing, creative relationships and resistance. The panel is hosted by RACS Director Sarah Dale and Kaldor Centre Director Jane McAdam AO.

A panel event recording from the 2022 Kaldor Centre Conference, 'Turning points: New directions in refugee protection' held on 17 November 2022. As asylum processes are shifted offshore, how can governments be held accountable for the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers beyond their borders? Join Behrouz Boochani (Author and journalist); Itamar Mann (University of Haifa); Anna Talbot (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law); Elahe Zivardar (Director, 'Searching for Aramsayesh Gah'); and Chair: Riona Moodley (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law).

A panel event recording from the 2022 Kaldor Centre Conference, 'Turning points: New directions in refugee protection' held on 17 November 2022. How can we create a more constructive public conversation about refugees? Join Barat Ali Batoor (Photojournalist); Tom Hashemi (Cast from Clay); Amanda Ripley (Journalist and author); and Chair: Lauren Martin (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law)

A panel event recording from the 2022 Kaldor Centre Conference, 'Turning points: New directions in refugee protection' held on 16 November 2022. Does the Global North’s response to people fleeing Ukraine signal a renewed commitment to international protection, or a turn towards more geographically proximate and time-bound responses? Join Arif Hussein (Refugee Advice and Casework Service); Yulia Ioffe, (University College London); Catherine Woollard (European Council on Refugees and Exiles); and Chair: Jane McAdam (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law)

A panel event recording from the 2022 Kaldor Centre Conference, 'Turning points: New directions in refugee protection' held on 16 November 2022. What practical actions can advance the meaningful participation of refugees in representative decision-making? Join Mustafa Alio (R-SEAT); Sana Ali Mustafa (Asylum Access); Najeeba Wazefadost (Asia Pacific Network of Refugees); Fiona Whiteridge (Refugee and Migrant Services, Immigration New Zealand); and Chair: Tristan Harley (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law).

Recording from the opening panel event at the 2022 Kaldor Centre Conference, 'Turning points: New directions in refugee protection' held on 15 November 2022. How has COVID-19 transformed access to protection, assistance and the lives of those already living in precarious situations – for better and for worse? Join Adrian Edwards (UNHCR Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific); Roshni Shanker (Migration and Asylum Project); Gillian Triggs (UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection); Pascal Zigashane (Action pour le Progrés); and Chair: Daniel Ghezelbash (Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law)

Kaldor Centre Director, Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO, delivers the opening keynote address entitled, 'Turning points in international protection: onwards and upwards, or u-turns and roundabouts?' at the 2022 Kaldor Centre Conference held on 15 November 2022 and reflects on the major disruptive events we have faced in recent times, and their implications for the future of refugee protection.

Students who have experienced displacement share their experience of university life and tips on how others can show support and solidarity. This free Diversity Fest 2022 event at UNSW Sydney was hosted by the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law on 27 October 2022.

Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS) Centre Director, Sarah Dale, and Kaldor Centre Deputy Director, Daniel Ghezelbash, in a conversation about the issues currently facing refugees in Australia. This is a recording of a seminar held on World Refugee Day 20 June 2022.

A livestream panel event held on 24 May 2022 in the wake of the Australian federal election. Author and journalist David Marr leads a discussion about Australia’s refugee policy, with Kaldor Centre Director Jane McAdam AO, author Abbas Nazari, and Guardian Australia journalist Ben Doherty. Abbas Nazari's memoir, 'After the Tampa: From Afghanistan to New Zealand' is published by Allen & Unwin and available from all good bookstores.

As war rages in Ukraine, Europe and other countries are taking unusually quick action to support the millions of civilians fleeing their now-threatened homes. UNSW Kaldor Centre Honorary Professor Guy S Goodwin-Gill has been a leading voice on refugee issues since the first edition of his book, 'The Refugee in International Law', now in its Fourth Edition, co-authored by Jane McAdam with Emma Dunlop. Here, he explains what is working for Ukraine’s refugees and why.

A Kaldor Centre Virtual Conference 2021 key panel session held on 20 October 2021. What do we know, how do we know it, and what more do we need to know to inform policies on climate change, disasters and mobility? When the issues are as contested as climate and migration, a key challenge is simply agreeing on transparent, credible, actionable data. Hear from Vicente Anzellini, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre; Tautala Mauala, Samoan Red Cross; Andrea Milan, International Organization for Migration; Kira Vinke, Center for Climate and Foreign Policy; and chaired by Sanjula Weerasinghe, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law affiliate member.

A Kaldor Centre Virtual Conference 2021 key panel session held on 21 October 2021. Sometimes the impacts of disasters and climate change mean that whole areas may become unsafe to live in. Communities may be faced with the prospect of relocation. But who decides – to move at all, and if so, where? Planned relocations traverse a complicated cultural, legal and land title landscape. What does a ‘successful’ planned relocation look like? Hear from Erica Bower, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law; Daniel Fitzpatrick, Faculty of Law, Monash University; Salote Soqo, Climate Justice & Crisis Response, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee; Merewalesi Yee, University of Queensland; and chaired by Elizabeth Ferris, Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University

A Kaldor Centre Virtual Conference key panel session held on 19 October 2021. When people are on the move from the impacts of disasters or climate change, how does the law help or hinder them? Is refugee law useful? Human rights law? Migration law? What about regional free movement agreements? How is individual agency enhanced or eroded by legal frameworks? What about people who move but don’t cross an international border, and what about people who can’t move at all? Our experts will reflect on how these questions are answered across different times and places. Hear from Bruce Burson, New Zealand Immigration and Protection Tribunal; Lucy Daxbacher, Head of Mission to Uganda, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD); Walter Kälin, Envoy of the Chair, Platform on Disaster Displacement; Caroline Zickgraf, Deputy Director, The Hugo Observatory; and chaired by Tamara Wood, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.

This event was held on 9 November 2021, to launch the fourth edition of 'The Refugee in International Law', by Guy S Goodwin-Gill and Jane McAdam(together with Emma Dunlop). In this podcast, Guy S Goodwin-Gill and Emma Dunlop discuss the practice of refugee law today, in a discussion with Arif Hussein of the Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS). How is refugee status determined around the world amid changing social pressures? What are the trends in protection in different jurisdictions? What legal questions arise when restrictive policies mean that access to asylum is blocked, rights are curtailed, and people cannot access fair status determination procedures?

This opening panel at the Kaldor Centre Virtual Conference 2021: 'Whose move? Addressing migration and displacement in the face of climate change', was held on Tuesday 19 October, 2021. In this panel, experts set out the key questions and principles that should guide responses to mobility in the face of climate change. Hear from Rabab Fatima, Ambassador of Bangladesh to the United Nations; Andrew Harper, Special Advisor on Climate Action to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees; Frances Namoumou, Pacific Conference of Churches; Nicole Shepardson, US Department of State and Chair Jane McAdam AO, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law in this crucial discussion.

A Kaldor Centre Conference 2021: 'Whose move? Addressing migration and displacement in the face of climate change', panel session held on 20 October 2021 AEDT. People fleeing disasters and the impacts of climate change often enter an unmapped legal landscape. Faced with legal gaps or overlaps, courts today are considering how laws may be shaped to unprecedented circumstances. Different jurisdictions are deciding differently – and some outcomes are forcing leaders to propose more creative new solutions. Hear from Robin Bronen, Alaska Institute for Justice; Ama Francis, International Refugee Assistance Project; Adam McBeth, Victorian Bar; Solomon Yeo, Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change; chaired by llona Millar, Baker McKenzie.

A vital, virtual discussion about the principles and practice of academic research, led by emerging scholars with lived experience of displacement. This panel event was hosted by the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and the Forced Migration Research Network at UNSW, and UNHCR’s Global Academic Interdisciplinary Network, on 7 October 2021. Introduced by GAIN Chair Professor Geoff Gilbert, and moderated by the Kaldor Centre’s Dr Tamara Wood, early-career thought leaders came together to discuss ways to overcome structural barriers to education and research dissemination, and career pathways for refugees in academia.