Boats and Beyond

Ai Weiwei’s Law of the Journey, 2017, an imposing installation featuring a 60-metre-long boat crowded with hundreds of anonymous refugee figures, provokes this frank discussion of Australia’s response to asylum seekers arriving by boat – and today’s approach to refugees globally. What is the relevance of the 1951 Refugee Convention when more people have been forced to flee their homes now than at any time since the World War? How does international law influence domestic politics around the world? What are the repercussions of Australia’s bipartisan policy of offshore processing on Manus and Nauru, and is the country prepared to deal with current crises, such as the Rohingya exodus from Myanmar, or future pressures of people displaced by climate change? International legal expert Guy Goodwin-Gill of UNSW’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law; lawyer and prize-winning Offshore author Madeline Gleeson; and award-winning Guardian journalist Ben Doherty talk law, policy, politics and solutions. The panel was moderated by Elaine Pearson, Australia Director, Human Rights Watch. Presented by the Biennale of Sydney and UNSW’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.