“Closed Camps” or Prisons by Another Name? Investigating the Migration Crises in Northeast Syria, Iraq, and South Sudan - featuring Professor Mara Revkin of Duke University
Room V
1111 East 60th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637
Presenting student organizations: International Law Society Human Rights Law Society
There is an inherent tension between the widespread practice of establishing camps to provide temporary housing and humanitarian assistance to migrants and the fundamental human right to freedom of movement. International law permits states to impose some restrictions on the movement of migrants, including temporary confinement in “closed camps” for lawful purposes. These closed camps are a relatively recent development in the modern migration management regime and have become more common. This trend is driven by the increased frequency of subnational conflicts, resulting in high levels of internal displacement and the growing securitization of systems for managing large transnational flows of “mixed migrants.” U.N. agencies have provided some general guidelines on the human rights and humanitarian conditions that must be satisfied in order for closed camps to comply with international law, however, the states and non-state actors that manage closed camps have violated these conditions with impunity in the absence of accountability mechanisms to ensure that these sites do not become open-air prisons by another name. This talk will include findings from recent empirical studies and work with humanitarian organizations in Northeast Syria, Iraq, and South Sudan.
Mara Revkin is an Associate Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University where she teaches and conducts empirical research on armed conflict, peace-building, transitional justice, and migration with a regional focus on the Middle East and Africa. Alongside her academic research, she has been working with and advising United Nations agencies and other humanitarian organizations in Iraq, Syria, and South Sudan since 2016.