The child in international refugee law

Public Seminar Series, Hilary term 2014. Seminar by Jason Pobjoy (Blackstone Chambers) recorded on 5 February 2014 at the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford. International law has played an important role in advancing the rights of refugee children. In this seminar Mr Pobjoy considers how international refugee law and international law on the rights of the child might be creatively aligned to respond to the reality that a child seeking international protection is both a child and a refugee. Specifically, he examines three contexts – defined as ‘modes of interaction’ – where the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) might be engaged to assist in determining the status of a child seeking international protection. First, the CRC may provide procedural guarantees not otherwise provided under international refugee law. Secondly, the CRC may be invoked as an interpretative aid to inform the interpretation of the Refugee Convention, and in particular the Article 1 definition. Thirdly, the CRC may give rise to an independent source of status outside the international refugee protection regime. These three modes of interaction provide a ‘child rights framework’ for assessing the status of a refugee child.