Refereed Journals

Eve Lester, ‘Internationalising Constitutional Law: An Inward-Looking Outlook’ (2016) 42(2) Australian Feminist Law Journal 321–49

This article considers how certain domestic policies with respect to immigration have impacted on Australia’s diplomatic engagement in the negotiation of international and human rights standards. It considers selected historical examples that illustrate Australia’s impulse to internationalise the plenary power of exclusion embodied in ss 51(xix) and (xxvii) of the Constitution. It suggests that this historical impulse has an enduring relevance and is echoed in contemporary attempts to legitimise and normalise controversial aspects of Australia’s asylum policy. In this connection, it considers the example of extraterritorial detention and processing of asylum seekers, in particular the issue of resettlement.

Eve Lester, ‘Work, the Right to Work and Durable Solutions: A Study on Sierra Leonean Refugees in The Gambia’ (2005) 17(2) International Journal of Refugee Law 331–93

It is rare indeed that the forced movement of people will not have an economic dimension. Economic issues related to the movement of people have generally been viewed as beyond the scope of the debate on the international status and protection of refugees. Instead, ‘economics’ and ‘refugees’ when heard together, or even in loose association, have evoked the pejorative images of those who move to seek a ‘better life’. While recognising on the one hand the inevitability of economic dimensions to refugee movements, many advocates for refugees have traditionally taken great care in their policy and advocacy work to downplay the economic element of the complex matrix of motivations that lead refugees and other forced migrants to move. This paper takes a different approach. It promotes the right to work, a social and economic right, as integral to protection and to all durable solutions. It explores its relevance, and indeed its significance, as a matter of law, policy and practice to the lives of refugees and those responsible for their protection, including their hosts. After all, ‘[d]espite the statistical existence of unemployment in every country in the world, work continues to be “an essential part of the human condition”’. In addition, the paper examines the importance of a rights-based analysis of work in understanding its relevance in the field both of international and national protection. In doing so, it explores the connections between work and the right to work and the three durable solutions. It acknowledges that social and economic conditions and inequities are often amongst the root causes of conflict which then lead to the failure of national protection and precipitate flight.

Eve Lester, ‘A Place at the Table: The Role of NGOs in Refugee Protection — International Advocacy and Policy-making’ (2005) 24(2) Refugee Survey Quarterly 125–42

This article examines a number of different issues arising out of NGO engagement with and influence in international policy development and decision-making. While identifying and acknowledging the substnatial impact that NGOs have been able to have in international deliberative processes, it urges NGOs to think critically about and reflect upon the role that we play. It picks up and examines some of the ‘stones in the road’ that will challenge NGOs — whether humanitarian or human rights NGOs — as they endeavour to contribute to an enhanced refugee protection regime in international forums.