Human Rights Weekend 2021 dedicated to Migration and International Human Rights Law

On 10-12 December 2021 Academician Levan Alexidze Foundation in cooperation with the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) organized a human rights and migration weekend. The event unified the students and researchers from five higher educational institutions. The Human Rights and Migration Weekend marking International Human Rights Day – 10 December was designed to provide for a space of thorough discussion on a variety of highly topical issues related to migration and International Human Rights Law to the participants with a background in international law and international relations.

The Weekend discussions brought together distinguished speakers from Georgian and foreign academic institutions for the three-days long academic debates.

The Human Rights Weekend was opened by this season’s last webinar of the Migration Talks series, which has been conducted jointly by the Levan Alexidze Foundation and ICMPD throughout the year and attracted many engaged participants from Georgia and abroad alike. The last lecture of the Migration Talks was delivered by Professor Giuseppe CATALDI from the University of Naples, on the topic of Migration through the Mediterranean Corridors.The talk focused on the political, legal, security, and environmental challenges present in the Mediterranean region, which makes this area hotspot of irregular migration for people coming mostly from Africa and the Middle East. Professor Cataldi also spoke about the routes how people are smuggled in the Mediterranean and the security risks thereto. The discussion concerted around the international legal responsibility of coastal states under various international instruments (including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea), searching and rescuing migrant boats, as well as the prohibition of the return of migrants from unsafe countries.

The Human Rights Weekend dedicated to the issues of human rights protection in the migration context further covered the following issues: participants were able to get engaged in a discussion with Dr. Saba PIPIA Associated Professor of the Georgian-American University on the issues of Deportation, Transfer, and Evacuations in Armed Conflicts. The linkage between armed conflict and migration was explored and participants discussed in detail all possible situations when people are migrating during armed conflicts.

Professor David MOYA of the University of Barcelona delivered a lecture on EU-Georgia mobility. He broadly discussed EU legislation on migration and EU policy on the customs union, Schengen area, external borders, asylum and visa dialogue with third countries. A particular focus was made on the system of unified borders and how EU legislation on asylum interacts with domestic legislations of the member states.

Professor Marina MESKHI, the Founder of the Academician Levan Alexidze Foundation and the lecturer at the Ilia State University introduced to the weekend participants the theoretical and practical frameworks in respect of risks of trafficking in persons during irregular migration. She firstly analyzed the international legal framework on labor migration and trafficking in persons and also outlined criminal and transnational aspects of the crime of human trafficking.

Professor Ketevan KHUTSISHVILI from Tbilisi State University, who is the main initiator of this event, spoke about the human rights dimension of the visa liberalization process. Based on visa liberalization action plans elaborated by the EU to the Western Balkan and Eastern Partnership countries (including Georgia), she described why human rights obligations stand in the center of efforts to achieve and ensure sustainable functioning of steps provided in the visa liberalization action plans. The discussion specifically focused on the need to have an effective anti-discrimination remedial mechanism in the countries, which aspire to receive visa-free travel with the EU.

Throughout 2021, the Levan Alexidze Foundation and ICMPD have collaborated in a series of events promoting human rights and democratic standards, dedicated to the 95th jubilee of the founder of the International Law research and teaching in Georgia Professor Levan Alexidze, late Full Member of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences.

Date

Dec 11 - 12 2021
Expired!

Time

All Day

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