A System Under Strain: Can Refugee Protection Keep Pace with Global Displacement?
The first regional event in our global series on displacement looks at how Middle East nations have adapted to large-scale, protracted displacement.
Join us for an online event examining the relevance of the international refugee protection framework — particularly the 1951 Refugee Convention — in a global context increasingly defined by large-scale and protracted displacement. While
the Convention remains the normative cornerstone of refugee protection, the realities of contemporary displacement have strained its original assumptions of temporary displacement and shared international responsibility. Using Jordan and Lebanon as a regional lens, the webinar will consider how non-signatory states engage with and shape the international refugee protection regime in practice.
The discussion will reflect on lessons from these experiences and will also explore what sustainable approaches exist, and how international commitment to equitable and predictable responsibility-sharing can be renewed.
Featured Speakers
Elora Mukherjee (Moderator), Founding Director of Columbia Law School's Immigrants' Rights Clinic and Jerome L. Greene Clinical Professor of Law at Columbia University
Lina Abou-Habib, Director of the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut
Mariam Abu Samra, Senior Researcher and Head at the Renaissance Strategic Center of Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD)
Rana G. Ksaifi, Assistant Representative for Protection at UNHCR Jordan
About the Series
This event is part of a global series, Displacement in a Changing World: Global Dialogue Across Campus and Continents, a year-long initiative convened by Columbia Global to explore the evolving realities of displacement around the world. Through regional events hosted by Columbia Global Centers and cross-campus dialogues in New York, the series brings together scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and students to examine the drivers of displacement, emerging policy responses, and the future of global protection frameworks.
Explore the full series and sign up for all our upcoming events.
