Join the Global Strategic Litigation Council, Refugees Seeking Equal Access at the Table (R-Seat) and the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility for an in-person panel event with Mr. Gehad Madi, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, on 22 October at 4:30PM ET. The event will feature a discussion of the launch of the Special Rapporteur’s latest report to the United Nations on the human rights impacts of externalization practices, and a timely conversation with a panel of experts on how to uphold the rights of all migrants.

Across the world, countries are increasingly externalizing border control: In North and West Africa, the European Union has pressured states to secure their borders to prevent arrivals, forcing many migrants onto longer and more dangerous routes. In the Americas, the US has concluded agreements with Mexico and other Central

American countries to curb northward migration, leading to the detention and deportation of hundreds to countries where they have no community, language, or protection. Despite the grave human rights consequences of these policies, states justify them on the basis of security, humanitarian, economic and legal-political discourses. 

How do these discourses obscure accountability, and what can be done to ensure states respect and uphold the rights of everyone on the move? 

At this event, the Special Rapporteur will present findings from his latest report to the United Nations General Assembly (A/80/302) on the externalization of migration governance and its human rights impact. The report calls on states to end arrangements that prevent arrival, outsource asylum processing, or allow for readmission or expulsion to countries different from the country of nationality, which effectively shift responsibility for migrants and refugees to third States and, in practice, lead to violations of their human rights..

Following his presentation, the Special Rapporteur will engage with a panel representing academic, legal and lived experience of migration to discuss:  What should governments do to guarantee the rights of all migrants, including refugees, now and in the future?

This is a rare opportunity to engage directly with the UN Special Rapporteur and an esteemed panel of experts on this rapidly proliferating issue in global migration policy.

Presented by the Global Strategic Litigation Council, Refugees Seeking Equal Access at the Table (R-SEAT), and the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at The New School for Social Research and The New School.

Ian Kysel

Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Cornell Law School

Rez Gardi

Co-Managing Director and International Human Rights Lawyer, R-SEAT

Mr. Gehad Madi

Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, United Nations

Bella Mosselmans

Director, Global Strategic Litigation Council for Refugee Rights

Leah Zamore

Senior Research Fellow, Director of Global Policy Engagement