Ongoing PhD Projects in Research Cluster II
Violent Disruptions and Forced Migration
Violent disruption encompasses natural (often man-made) disasters as well as events of collective violence like wars, civil wars, genocides, or pogroms. Forced migration is regularly a consequence of such events. Precisely, the causes, prevention, monitoring and mitigation of violent disruptions and forced migration are central in the cluster’s research projects, lectures, publications and events as is the critical analysis of the legal framework regulating the aforementioned matters.
Learn more about the research cluster on Violent Disruptions and Forced Migration here.
Selin Altay
The State-Sponsored LGBTI+phobia in Turkish Detention Centres as an Infringement of International Refugee Conventions
LGBTI+ people around the world are exposed to torture and persecution due to their sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status. With inadequate healthcare, isolation, and harassment rampant in Turkish detention centres, LGBTI+ refugees endure profound challenges. This research seeks to shed light on these injustices by analyzing Turkey's refugee detention system and highlighting violations of LGBTI+ refugees' rights under international conventions.
Benedikt Behlert
The Necessity of a Conversation between the Administration and the Individual – The Relevance of Administrative Procedure to International Human Rights
Administrative procedure is often perceived as a nuisance by the two sides involved: by individuals seeking an action, service or permission from the state as well as by members of the administration wanting to pursue an action against an individual or refusing to act in her favour. Both sides may view administrative procedure as an unwelcome hurdle on their way to reach their objectives. This perception, however, clouds the value and importance of administrative procedure for the individual in modern legal systems. It is not an end in itself but protects the individual against arbitrary state action. This PhD project seeks to answer the question whether the effective implementation of international human rights law requires administrative procedures. The project looks at international human rights law through an analytical foil developed from an analysis of German constitutional law and aims to comprehensively evaluate the potential of a human rights-based argumentation in favour of a conversation between the administration and the individual for the better realisation of international human rights.
Jan-Phillip Graf
The Rights of Refugee Children under International Law
This PhD proejct examines the full scope of substantive rights and protections of refugee children under international law. To this end, it first examines how the notion of 'refugee children' emerged in the League of Nations and evolved into an agency-focused concept after WWII. In a second step, it scrutinizes the Refugee Convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child as the main sources of refugee children's rights and develops a theory about how these two regimes can interact to further the best interests of refugee children. It applies this theory to the work of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in order to explain how existing refugee and human rights law can be applied to the special situation of refugee children. In a last step, the project outlines common enforcement challenges and provides practice-focused recommendations.
Ronja Huesmann
The application of international standards in regional refugee facilities in Germany - Qualitative comparative case study about the accommodation and care of refugees from an organisational perspective
In the summer of 2015, there has been a high increase of refugees coming to Europe and Germany due to the armed conflict in Syria and forced migration and migration from the African and Asian continent. Germany had to deal with a high number of people in need seeking for asylum in Germany. Nine years after this event and upcoming new crises, it is time to observe the handling of this special situation in Germany. This PhD project intents to answer the question about the use of normative, organisational and technical standards in the accommodation and care of refugees in regional refugee shelters in Germany. Furthermore, it seeks to answer which factors do influence the integration of international standards in Germany. International standards like the Sphere Project or the Core Humanitarian Standards are often used by international, humanitarian organisations in the context of refugee relief. The use of international standards in Germany is rather unexplored. Due to a qualitative, comparative case study between organisations which are using international standards in Germany and organisations which are using national standards, this research question should be further explored.
Sissy Katsoni
The Determination of Shared Responsibility Arising from Contributions to Refoulement
The thesis explores situations where multiple wrongdoers (multiple States and/or international organizations) contribute through their wrongful conduct to non-refoulement violations. Precisely, the thesis seeks to identify the boundaries of the law of international responsibility regarding the determination of responsibility in such situations and to elaborate a revised version of the ‘Guiding Principles on Shared Responsibility in International Law’, which would better assist academics and decision-makers in the determination of responsibility in these complex scenarios.
Aylin Koymali
Compatibility of the non-refoulement principle with securing the EU’s external borders
In this project, the forthcoming reform of the EU’s Common Asylum System (CEAS) will be examined under international law by checking it against the Geneva Refugee Convention and regional refugee and human rights systems. The aim is to achieve a proportionate balance
between the sovereignty interests in the European area and the human rights and refugee law concerns of the refugees in order to develop a own reform in accordance with international law. The focus is on examining a dynamic interpretation of the non-refoulement principle by the contracting states and/or the competent international courts and comparing its scope of application with the regional refugee regimes, in particular to the ECHR, the EU Qualification Directive, the Refugee Convention of the Organization of the African Union, the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, the Arab Convention on the Status of Refugees in Arab Countries and the Bangkok Principles. The legal review is intended to make the EU aware of its own liability in the case of a breach of international law and to support the EU legislator in developing an own reform that fulfils the international requirements.
Abdirahman Mahamud
The Ethiopian-Somali diaspora, remittances, and the social protection
This dissertation investigates the Ethiopian-Somali diaspora and the role of remittances as informal social protection for relatives in the Somali Regional State (SRS) of Ethiopia. Remittances, the money sent by migrants to their families in their countries of origin, are vital for reducing poverty and providing support, particularly in impoverished regions. They are crucial for households vulnerable to income fluctuations and disasters, especially where government social protection is limited. Using a qualitative approach and Grounded Theory Methodology, this study examines how remittances function as a social safety net. The research involves snowball and purposive sampling to select a diverse sample of remittance senders and recipients in the Somali region and senders in selected Western countries. This approach aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the impact of remittances on welfare in the migrants' places of origin.
Jack Provan
Asserting the value of criminalisation for the purposes of transitional justice: A study of forced displacement
The research project will argue that international criminal law can and should follow the primary goal of facilitating transitional justice. The project will focus specifically on the crime against humanity of forced displacement in order to achieve a narrow scope, and because the often cross-border nature of forced displacement raises an interesting discussion surrounding jurisdiction.
The main argument will be that the ICL toolbox, which extends beyond prosecution, is more suited to rebuilding and maintaining security, development & governance in post-conflict societies than a strictly prosecutive approach. The weaknesses of this claim will be analysed and are identified as three main issues: (1) the lack of universal jurisdiction; (2) the need to assign individual criminal liability; and (3) specifically in the context of forced displacement, the ICC trend of interpreting the crime as evidence of other, more “severe” crimes such as genocide, which may risk overlooking the victims of forced displacement itself. The thesis will then look in greater detail at the alternative solutions ICL can offer and their value in the process of transitional justice: broadly following the pillars of international justice present in much academic literature, namely (1) truth-seeking; (2) prosecution; (3) reparations; and (4) institutional reform. It is argued that ICL is particularly effective in the achievement of those goals, and further, that institutional reform in the form of establishing ad-hoc courts as an alternative to ICC intervention may have the added benefit of bolstering regional justice systems and restoring faith in domestic governance.