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**APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTING** Dear all, I am organizing a panel for the 16th Conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM, hosted by the Centre for Migration Studies, the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, and the Faculty of Law and Public Administration at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland from July 12-15, 2016. Since paper proposals must be submitted by February 1,2016, abstracts for this panel are due by January 15, 2016. Panel name: Protection gaps in the Geneva Convention and UNHCR Statute: Policy and Praxis This panel seeks to examine the legal gaps of the international refugee regime, established by the 1951 Convention and UNHCR Statute. The proposals might emphasize following points and proposals on points other than the following ones are also welcome. - Protection gaps (legal or praxis) in the first countries of asylum which lead millions of refugees in search for gaining refugee status in developed countries - UNHCR’s scope of mandate in comparison with the states’ mandate of ‘cooperation’, its budget and jurisdiction. According to Article 20 of its Statute, all other expenditures of UNHCR rather than administrative ones shall be financed by voluntary contributions. In 2014, 86% of its budget came from government contributions which shows the dependency of UNHCR on developed states for its mandates. The great duty of providing international protection and seeking permanent solutions for the problem of refugees belongs the UNHCR while states should only ‘cooperate’ with it. - Difficulty of using right of asylum and increasing market of migrant trafficking - Article 9 of the 1951 Convention enables states to take provisional measures in time of war or other grave and exceptional circumstances. Do states misuse this article? - Article 11 of the UNHCR Statute states that the High Commissioner shall report to the General Assembly through the Economic and Social Council. When UNHCR reports protection gaps in legal term or in praxis, how effective this mechanism to oblige states their responsibility of cooperation with UNHCR? Do we need a further enforcement mechanism to increase state cooperation once a gap is reported? - According to Article 1D of the 1951 Convention, persons who are at present receiving protection or assistance from other organs or agencies of the UN shall not be entitled to the benefits of this Convention. Thus, 5.1 million Palestinian refugees are not under the mandate of UNHCR and are not entitled to the refugee protection of the 1951 Convention. Effectiveness of UNRWA to provide protection and durable solutions to Palestinian refugees would be a point to be welcomed in terms of the protection gaps of the international refugee regime. Contributions from countries of first asylum, transit countries, international or regional humanitarian organizations and refugees are mostly welcome. I myself will prepare a paper on the Turkey’s temporary protection regime covering Syrian nationals, stateless people and Palestinian refugees coming from Syria. I would question its protection scope in comparison with conditional refugee status of Turkey’s Law on Foreigners and International Protection and refugee status of the 1951 Convention. If you are interested in submitting a paper for this panel, please contact Arzu Güler at [log in to unmask] directly. Dr. Arzu Güler Department of International Relations Adnan Menderes University/Turkey ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Note: The material contained in this communication comes to you from the Forced Migration Discussion List which is moderated by the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the RSC or the University. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this message please retain this disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. E-mail: [log in to unmask] Posting guidelines: http://www.forcedmigration.org/research-resources/discussion/forced-migration-discussion-list-posting-guidelines Subscribe/unsubscribe: http://tinyurl.com/fmlist-join-leave List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/forced-migration.html RSS: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?RSS&L=forced-migration Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/refugeestudies Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/refugeestudiescentre