Course: International Refugee Law and Contemporary Challenges

*** Apologies for Cross Posting **

Dear Colleagues,

HREA and the University for Peace Human Rights Centre are issuing a final call for applications for the e-learning course International Refugee Law and Contemporary Challenges offered from 22 October-2 December 2012.

This short certificate course offered by HREA and the Human Rights Center of the University for Peace introduces participants to the international system for refugee protection, from the historical, legal, theoretical and practical perspectives. Issues concerning international protection of refugees have undergone a sea change from the time when the 1951 Refugee Convention came into force. The contemporary world order poses serious challenges to refugee protection, beginning with identifying refugees within mixed migratory flows, inadequate national policies by states to protect refugees, their incompatibilities with international refugee law, the role of international organisations like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), issues of xenophobia and security in host countries amongst various other issues. This course is designed to provide a comprehensive picture to participants of how and why refugee protection is indispensable from the historical and human rights perspective, what are their needs and available legal protections, which are the relevant actors involved in refugee protection and what are the challenges facing today’s refugees and host countries. The course also analyses the regional systems of refugee protection with the help of selected case studies. The course is based on a dynamic pedagogy including reading materials, video clips, case studies, and interactive webinars with the instructor as well as practitioners from NGOs and officials of UNHCR.

This e-learning course involves approximately 40 hours of reading, interaction with students and instructor on discussion boards, quizzes and other assignments and webinars. The course is based on a participatory, active learning approach, with an emphasis on critical reflection and peer-to-peer learning. The maximum number of course participants is 25. Students who successfully complete the course will receive a Certificate of Participation. It is also possible to be an auditor of the course.

Course outline:

Week 1: Introduction to refugee law – history of population movements, evolution of refugee regime and basic concepts
Weeks 2-3: Contemporary international framework for refugee protection – the 1951 Refugee Convention, the Protocol of 1967, essential concepts and case studies
Week 4: UNHCR and other relevant actors; internally displaced persons and stateless persons
Week 5: Regional systems of refugee protection and selected cases.
Week 6: Contemporary challenges to refugee protection

For further information and to register online, please go to: www.hrea.org/refugeelaw .

Best wishes,

Frank Elbers
Distance Learning Programme, HREA
www.hrea.org/courses