Date: 29 November 2022 (Tuesday)

Time: 6-7 PM CET (12 -1 AM HKT)
Title: The Last Rights Project
Speaker: Syd Bolton (Children’s Human Rights Lawyer (non-practising)) &
Catriona Jarvis (Former Judge of the United Kingdom Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber))

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Abstract:

As more States adopt increasingly restrictive border security, third country gatekeeping and processing arrangements, refugees and migrants face more dangerous journeys and punitive incarceration. Consequently, death tolls and serious harm rise as ‘collateral damage’ of migration deterrence policies and lack of adequate enforcement measures to ensure states’ compliance with international treaty obligations. Families of those who go missing or die on migration journeys suffer additional indignity of not knowing the fate of their loved ones; experience multiple failures of bureaucracy in denial of access to justice; culturally respectful and timely burial and mourning practices; psycho-social support, rehabilitation and reparations. This presentation examines how existing human rights norms can provide a new framework to address these and other issues facing bereaved migrant families and discusses the 2018 ‘Mytilini Declaration’ a tool to improve states’ practices and help create a mechanism to restore dignity, accountability and justice for victims and their families.

The Last Rights Project Website: http://www.lastrights.net

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About the speaker:

Syd Bolton is a Children’s Human Rights Lawyer (non-practising), former legal and policy officer including for Coram Children’s Legal Centre; The Children’s Legal Centre; Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture; Islington Law Centre, Wilford Monro Solicitors. 

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Catriona Jarvis is a former Judge of the United Kingdom Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), former children’s lawyer and former teacher. She has worked on refugee rights, especially concerning women and children.