Refugee Law Initiative seminar: ‘Voting Rights of Refugees’ – Dr Ruvi Ziegler (Reading)

You are cordially invited to this Refugee Law Initiative seminar next week:

Voting Rights of Refugees’ – Dr Ruvi Ziegler (Reading)
Thursday 22nd January, 1800-1930
Conference Room, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London, WC1B 5DR

– Dr Ziegler will argue in this seminar that recognised 1951 Convention refugees should have the right to vote in the political community where they reside, assuming that the political community is a democracy and that its citizens have the right to vote. The basis of his contention is that the right to political participation in some political community is a basic right from the point of view of dignity and the protection of one’s interests; and that such refugees are effectively excluded, physically and symbolically, from the political community of their state of origin to which they are unwilling and/or unable to return. The state of asylum is, for the time being, the only community in which there is any realistic prospect of political participation on the refugees’ part. The argument also turns on the fact that the state of refuge has become the refugee’s home, namely the place where she is settled indefinitely, that is until the legal and factual circumstances change leading to cessation of her refugee status. Hence for these reasons, such refugees should be considered as a special category of non-citizen residents.

The event is free and open to the public. You can guarantee your place by registering at: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/voting-rights-of-refugees-tickets-13327702517?aff=eorg