EUniWell Open Lecture Series: European standards of Human Rights protection of displaced persons fleeing armed conflicts

02/06/2022

EUniWell Online EUniWell-Event

As part of the EUniWell Open Lecture Series, Prof. Alla Fedorova spoke on “European standards of Human Rights protection of displaced persons fleeing armed conflicts: the main challenges of their implementation due to Russian invasion of Ukraine” on Thursday, 2 June 2022.

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Lecturer: Prof. Alla Fedorova
Moderator:Dr. Karen Buchanan
Related EUniWell Arena: 2) Individual and Social Well-being

 

About this lecture:

“European standards of Human Rights protection of displaced persons fleeing armed conflicts: the main challenges of their implementation due to Russian invasion of Ukraine”

Bearing in mind different armed conflicts in the world during the last half a century, including European countries, issues of human rights protection of displaced persons, fleeing conflict zones within or beyond the territory of countries of their residence, have been extremely important in Europe. In 2011, thousands of refugees from Libya, Tunisia and other countries tried to reach EU borders; a few years later the migration crises engulfed Europe as a result of the conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan. Some EU countries were at the edge of humanitarian catastrophe that led to EU migration policy reforms. Such countries as Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia, Kosovo, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, Russia faced the internal displacement. In 2014 Ukraine came across to the largest flow of internally displaced person (IDPs) in modern history of Europe; 1.8 million persons were officially registered as IDPs. All categories of displaced persons need protection of their fundament rights that led to adoption of some documents in this sphere in Europe, case-law of the European Court of Human Rights was elaborated.

Russian large-scale invasion, started on 24 of February 2022, changed the situation with forced displacement dramatically and fundamentally. Not thousands, but millions of people tried to flee the war in first weeks of invasion.  Considering that Ukraine is one of the biggest European states by population, the consequences of the displacement can hardly be estimated at present. The largest influx awaits Europe; the European Union has activated the Temporary Protection Directive for the first time since its adoption in 2001. As a result, the vast majority of persons who fled the war in Ukraine received temporary protection in EU countries and didn’t even attempt to apply for refugee status. Ukrainians can be internally displaced persons, temporarily protected persons, asylum seekers, refugees and can change these categories. Correlation and interdependence of numbers of IDPs, temporarily protected persons, refugees from one country during one historical moment due to Russian invasion should be discussed.

The development of Human Rights protection of displaced Ukrainians depends on many factors, including the protection of the rights of internally displaced persons by Ukraine itself. In this situation the understanding similarities and differences between the different categories of displaced persons and European standards of their protection has the crucial importance, as well as the challenges of implementation of European standards and searching the ways of their solving.

Research background:

Prof. Alla Fedorova was born in 1976 in Donetsk, Ukraine, in 1998 graduated from the Faculty of Law of Donetsk National University. In 1998 she was a post-graduate student, then assistant professor, then associate professor (since 2006) of the International Law department, the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

In 2003, she received her PhD in International Law with the thesis: “International and legal commitments of Ukraine under the European Convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.  

As a local and international expert Alla Fedorova has cooperated with different international projects (EU, Council of Europe, OSCE); since 2016, she is a local consultant with the Council of Europe Project Human Rights Protection of Internally Displaced Person in Ukraine (2016- 2018) and Internal Displacement in Ukraine: building solutions (from 2018) and the Council of Europe Project “Promoting social human rights as a key factor of sustainable democracy in Ukraine” (since 2019). Alla Fedorova is also the international expert of the Council of Europe Department of the European Social Charter, a certified trainer of the Council of Europe Programme for Human Rights education for legal professionals (HELP).

Alla Fedorova has more than 50 scientific publications, was one of the authors of Ukrainian adaptation materials to the Council of Europe online HELP courses “Internal displacement” and “Transitional justice and Human Rights”.


 

This lecture was part of the EUniWell Open Lecture Series. Find the full programme here.

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