Refugee Protection in Central and Eastern Europe in History and in the Present

This workshop will create a space for dialogue and knowledge exchange between scholars of refugee history and human rights defenders working at international borders in Central and Eastern Europe. 

By engaging historians and practitioners, the workshop seeks to:

• Offer historical insights that can inform the analysis of contemporary refugee and border control policies, as well as advocacy strategies
• Build bridges between historical research and practitioner and citizen-based knowledge on these pressing issues

The workshop will cover the following topics:

• Understanding the evolution of the current refugee regimes, including the regional dynamics and country comparisons
• Restricting access to asylum as a fundamental right, including pushbacks and legal fictions that allow for the suspension of fundamental rights in certain territories
• The production and persistence of statelessness
• Selective protection and exclusion – how ethnicity, race, or other ascribed characteristics influence refugee status and protection
• Refugees and migrants at borders and in “no man’s land”
• The history of humanitarianism in the region – including the precarious situation of aid workers and the criminalization of solidarity
• Refugee experiences and perspectives – examining refugee voices and petitions, experiences of time and space

Registration

The event is by invitation only.

Queries

For any questions, contact Michal Frankl at frankl@mua.cas.cz and Lola Girard at lola.girard@odihr.pl.