Mid-way into the project, BEYOND has already garnered significant achievements. We have hired Dr. Özlem Gürakar Skribeland and Dr. Arjumand Kazmi as postdoctoral researchers focusing on Turkey and Pakistan respectively. We have also hired Naureen Rahim to conduct a PhD study focusing on Bangladesh, as well as Nora Milch to provide research assistance for the project.
During 2022 and 2023, historical research has been conducted at the archives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, and socio-legal research has taken place in our case study countries – Turkey, Lebanon, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The field research has involved undertaking interviews with key staff of international and non-governmental organizations (such as UNHCR) and legal practitioners. The team has also interviewed governmental officials. The data collection has allowed us to gain important insights into the many ways in which non-signatory states engage with international refugee law. Examples include: the engagement with the 1951 Convention by national courts in Turkey, Bangladesh and Pakistan; the historical establishment and operations of UNHCR in Lebanon, Pakistan and Turkey; and historical and contemporary discussions of possible accession to the 1951 Convention in Bangladesh and Lebanon.
Our tentative findings have been disseminated at international conferences, through online and in person local workshops and seminars in our case study countries, and through internationally disseminated analysis and opinion pieces. To take only three examples:
1. In 2022, BEYOND PI Professor Maja Janmyr participated in a high-level panel in Oslo with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. Janmyr presented insights from the BEYOND project concerning the role of the 1951 Convention in today’s responses to refugees.
2. In 2022, the BEYOND project co-organized a half-day seminar on International Refugee Law and the Rohingya refugee situation at Brac University's Centre for Peace and Justice in Dhaka. The event was widely attended by students, academics, policy-makers and practitioners, and was featured in the English-language newspaper The Daily Star.
3. In 2023, we organized a 2-day online exploratory workshop aiming to generate discussions, form networks and explore collaborations for future research on the interplay between international refugee law and non-signatory states. In addition to one keynote, the event had 27 speakers from across the globe. We are currently collating chapters for our planned edited collection based on insights garnered at this workshop.
In addition, in 2021, the BEYOND project also published a Special Issue on ‘Non-signatory States and the International refugee regime’ in Forced Migration Review (2021), the most widely read publication on forced migration. It is published by the Refugee Studies Centre in the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford. To launch the special feature, two online roundtable discussions with authors were held. These were widely attended by a global audience of academics, practitioners and policy-makers.
