Report from the Colloquium on Refugees, Regionalism and Responsibility

This report broadly reflects the ideas and understandings that emerged from a colloquium on Refugees, Regionalism and Responsibility held on 22-23 August, 2013 at the Australian National University. With the exception of the opening address, the statements contained in this report do not necessarily represent the individual views of any participant or any organisation in attendance. 2. Participants at the colloquium included representatives from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, the Embassy of Indonesia in Australia, the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, government and NGO (non-governmental organization) experts, and national and international academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. A full list of participants can be found at the end of this report. 3. The purpose of the colloquium was to discuss the merits of regional arrangements for sharing responsibility for refugees. Questions considered included the following: - What does responsibility sharing for refugees mean? Who should be responsible, why and how? - How have regional arrangements for refugees developed? What sort of regionalism do they embody? Do they result in protection and durable solutions for refugees? - How should regional cooperation frameworks for refugee protection be developed in the future? 4. Professor Penelope Mathew and Mr Tristan Harley co-convened the colloquium and prepared a background paper to inform the discussion at the colloquium. Their research is supported by the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (project number 120102224).