Refuge from inhumanity: Enriching refugee protection standards through recourse to international humanitarian law

This report summarises the proceedings at the international conference ‘Refuge from inhumanity: enriching refugee protection by recourse to international humanitarian law’ held at All Souls College, Oxford, 11-12 February 2013. The conference was jointly organised by the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, and the Refugee Law Initiative of the School of Advanced Study, University of London. This expert conference broke new ground in exploring the role of international humanitarian law (IHL) in the protection of refugees and asylum-seekers. Its seven thematic panels went beyond traditional approaches to IHL and refugee law by assessing the prospects for substantive legal interaction between the two fields. The first day of the conference explored the extent to which IHL (and international criminal law) may provide interpretative guidance in the asylum context. The second day was devoted to examining the potential of IHL for preventing refoulement to situations of armed conflict. The conference brought together exciting new contributions from more than twenty leading specialists in the fields of IHL and refugee law to take stock of recent developments in law and practice, and to cultivate new approaches to the topic. There were over 60 participants, including staff from international and national humanitarian organisations, judges, lawyers, academics and students. For a complete list of participants, please see Annex 1. Unless otherwise indicated, all presenters spoke in an individual and not an institutional capacity