· Obama diplomat will reveal how US-Australia agreement to resettle Manus and Nauru refugees was reached, and how people seeking asylum are faring in Trump's America, at this week's Kaldor Centre Conference
Anne Richard spearheaded talks with Australian policymakers and signed what President Trump calls "a rotten deal" – for the US to take refugees from Manus and Nauru – while serving as Obama's Assistant Secretary of State. Now at Georgetown University, Professor Richard will delve deep inside recent history as keynote speaker for the 2018 Kaldor Centre Conference at UNSW Sydney on Friday, 23 November.
Charting the rise and fall of US diplomacy on refugees and migrants, Professor Richard's keynote address will canvas recent developments in Trump's US refugee and asylum policies, putting these in the context of challenges that faced the Obama Administration. She will also draw insight from her dealings with the Australian team negotiating the US-Australia refugee deal, and from her more recent meetings with refugees who have subsequently been resettled in the United States.
The conference is a signature annual event bringing together Australian, regional, and global thinkers to UNSW's Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, the world's leading research centre in the field. The 2018 conference explores how contemporary politics are affecting long-standing legal protections for people seeking asylum; its theme is Refugee Diplomacy: Negotiating protection in a changing world.
Kaldor Centre Director Jane McAdam says, "2018 will go down in history as a significant year for the protection of refugees and migrants – at least on paper." But, in her much-anticipated Year in Review, Professor McAdam also casts light on dangerous rhetoric and divisive policies, in Australia and abroad.
Are refugee rights at a critical risk? Is there real progress on cooperation for asylum seekers in the Asia-Pacific? Will today's global negotiations make people safer? These are the questions for the influential thought leaders on the Kaldor Centre Conference program, led by Professors Richard and McAdam, and including:
- · Thomas Albrecht, outgoing UNHCR Regional Representative for Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific
- · Apajok Biar, Multicultural Youth Ambassador, Multicultural Youth of Australia Network NSW
- · Professor Erika Feller, former UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, now Vice Chancellor's Fellow, University of Melbourne
- · Bill Frelick, Director, Refugee Rights Program, Human Rights Watch
- · Travers McLeod, Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Policy Development
- · John Quinn, former Australian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Conference on Disarmament in Geneva
This conference coincides with the Kaldor Centre's fifth birthday, and a new short video about its work will premiere at the event. The Centre was established with support from Andrew and Renata Kaldor in 2013, to undertake rigorous research and to contribute to public policy by promoting legal, sustainable and humane solutions to forced migration.
Explore the full program for the Kaldor Centre Conference 2018 here.
Watch the Kaldor Centre video here.
