Description
The current - and potential future - roles of regional organisation in relation to forced migration is an increasing important issue for the governance of the protection of transnationally displaced persons. The majority of the world’s refugee and forced migrant population remain in the regions of which their home state is seen to be a part (or close neighbour) and there have been a number of regional arrangements directed at specific refugee events as well as regionally focused conventions (Africa), declarations (Latin America) and pacts (Europe) designed to spread common norms and support cooperation and responsibility sharing within regional contexts. At the same time, general and specific regional developments have typically distinguished between (what are perceived as) intra-regional displacements (which may be envisaged as occasions of regional solidarity) and extra-regional displacements. The question of the role and future potentials of regional organisations in supporting or regulating regional responses to mass displacements in a high unequal world at the level of regions as well as states must also consider the ambivalent ways in which a regional turn may shape the governance of protection.
While the topic of regionalism and responsibility for refugee protection has been addressed to some extent by legal scholarship, it remains underexplored, particularly in comparative terms, from a governance perspective and in relation to differences between intra-regional mass displacements and extra-regional mass displacement. This panel will address these issues and discuss the role regional organisations (could) play in governing forced in relation to Europe, Africa and Latin America, and modalities and mechanisms of governance deployed.
