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Law's Absence and Law's Failings

Investigate the extent to which international law protects the rights of non-refugee forced migrants.

  • Duration

    4 weeks
  • Weekly study

    3 hours
  • 100% online

    How it works
  • Included in an ExpertTrack

    Course 3 of 3
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Investigate human rights law and the protections it provides migrants

Securitisation and militarisation of border controls have dire consequences for those desperate to flee persecution, environmental disasters, and civil war.

On this course, you’ll look at the ways the law fails to provide protection for vulnerable migrants. You’ll also examine where the law is completely absent in the areas of internally displaced persons and environmentally displaced persons.

Examine how international law affects internally displaced persons

Many states have gone to great lengths to prevent people fleeing from entering their territories. This means that migrants can easily get stuck; they can neither leave their own country nor go back to their homes. They become internally displaced.

You’ll examine the so-called right to remain, its consequences, and whether the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement are effective in addressing the problems faced by Internally Displaced Persons.

Learn about the role law plays in protecting climate migrants

Climate change and environmental disasters are causing displacement of people all over the world. Where climate migrants do manage to cross borders, they will not be granted refugee status because they don’t fit the Refugee Convention’s definition of a refugee. You’ll consider whether there is a need for a treaty for climate migrants, or whether law is not the answer.

Assess the universality of human rights for undocumented migrants

With so few legal routes to migration available for those fleeing violence, civil war and persecution etc, migrants are forced to cross borders by covert means and they will not be legally present in their host country. You will examine the vulnerability of undocumented migrants and assess the extent to which human rights law is an effective tool to protect them.

What topics will you cover?

  • Internally displaced persons
  • Environmental displacement
  • Enforcement: immigration detention
  • Human rights of undocumented migrants

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Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Assess Western responses to the problem of internally displaced persons
  • Discuss the impact of narratives about climate change on states' responses to migration
  • Investigate the functions of immigration detention
  • Identify the gaps in international law in relation to the protection of non-refugee migrants

Who is the course for?

This course has been designed for anyone looking to develop a critical understanding of migration laws. It will be of specific interest to people working for national and international governmental and non-governmental organisations involved in the field of migration, and also lawyers wanting to deepen their knowledge base.

Who will you learn with?

I am Senior Lecturer in Law at Kent Law School, University of Kent. I specialise in International Human Rights Law and International Migration Law.

Who developed the course?

The University of Kent

The University of Kent, the UK’s European university, is one of the country’s most dynamic universities. Established in 1965, it now has 19,850 students studying at its various campuses.

About this ExpertTrack

Examine the history, context, and ever-evolving development of migration control exercised by sovereign states around the world.

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  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
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  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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