18.09.2024 Conference: Human Rights in Migration Societies

Exploring the Intersection of Human Rights and Migration in Law, Politics, and Everyday Life (18-20 September)

The MeDiMi Project

MeDiMi is an interdisciplinary research group funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), which comprises ten projects and a coordination & theory unit located at six academic institutions in Germany and the Netherlands. MeDiMi studies the scope, forms, and consequences of the “humanrightization” of discursive practices in migration-related conflicts. It analyzes the manifold references to human rights in legal, political, and everyday contexts, with the aim of developing a practice theory of human rights in contemporary societies.

Concept of the Conference

After two years of ongoing research, the MeDiMi conference will further explore the intersection of human rights and migration. It is open to researchers at all career stages and of all backgrounds – from undergraduate and doctoral students to senior academics, experienced practitioners, and activist voices. Participants are invited to join us in discussing a wide variety of legal struggles, issues of in-/exclusion, and (self-)representations of actors in migration societies.

Rather than providing preliminary results and theoretical findings from our own research, we want to listen and learn what others have found out about the dynamics of humanrightization: the practices of human rights movements, the role of human rights law, the interplay of human rights and democracy, and the making of human rights consciousness in migration societies.

Wed, Sept 18, 2024

Session A

Format: Opening Keynote

“The State of the Human Rights of Migrants in Europe”

Time: 17:00–18:30

Location: Bar Menachem Hörsaal (HS 5)

Speaker: Maximilian Pichl, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, Wiesbaden      

Chair: Susanne Buckley-Zistel, MeDiMi Researcher, Philipps University Marburg

 

Thu, Sept 19, 2024

Session B

Format: Roundtable

“Human Rights Movements in Migration Societies: Experiences and Practices”

Time: 09:00–10:30

Location: Bar Menachem Hörsaal (HS 5)

Speakers:

Nele Allenberg, German Institute for Human Rights, Berlin
Bernd Kasparek, Delft University of Technology and Transforming Solidarities, Berlin
Michele LeVoy, PICUM, Brussels                                            
Chair: Jürgen Bast, MeDiMi Researcher, Justus Liebig University Giessen

 

[ 10:30–11:00 Coffee break ]

 

Session C

Format: Parallel Panels

Time: 11:00–12:30

 

Panel C1: Doctrinal Struggles

Location: Seminarraum 44

Panelists:

Carmelo Danisi, University of Bologna: “What Role for International Human Rights Law in the Protection Against Ethnic and Religious Profiling?”
Kathrin Hamenstädt, University of Birmingham: “Human Rights for All or a Different Standard for Migrants?”
Marei Pelzer, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences: “Refugee Protection in Cases of Gender-based Persecution: A New Human Rights Approach of the ECJ?”
Chair: Leon Züllig, MeDiMi Researcher, Justus Liebig University Giessen

 

Panel C2: Diaspora Experiences

Location: Seminarraum 43

Panelists:

Alicja Polakiewicz, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg: “Enforcing Human Rights of Migrated Survivors via International Crimes Prosecutions in Germany: An Instrumental Argument”
Christina Pesch, Research Assistant at Landtag NRW, Farida Global e.V., and Stop Mutilation Deutschland e.V.; Michaela Zöhrer, University of Augsburg: “Bringing Human Rights (Back) to Life: Diaspora Activism in Germany and Academic Allyship”
Amany Moussa Selim, Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR): “When Mobilizing Under Repression Can Teach you ‘a Hundred Things’: Examining the Roots of Multifaceted Engagement Among Syrian Activists in Berlin
Chair: Mina Ibrahim, MeDiMi Researcher, Philipps University Marburg

 

Panel C3: Activist Practices

Location: Seminarraum 45

Panelists:

Jordan Dez, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam: “Undocumented Migrant Activism as Human Rights-making Practice"
Anna Fazzini, University of Naples L’Orientale; Arianna Grasso, University of Naples L’Orientale: “Border Externalisation, Human Rights, and Digital Resistance: A Multidimensional Analysis of Refugees' Twitter Activism in Australia"
Marco Perolini, London School of Economics and Political Science: “Migrant Activism and Human Rights: Tools for Social Change?”
Chair: Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, MeDiMi Researcher, Goethe University Frankfurt

 

Panel C4: Latin American Experiences

Location: Seminarraum 021 (Altbau)

Panelists:

Rita Lages de Oliveira, University of Chile, Santiago de Chile: “International Migration in the Jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court and the Court of Human Rights: A Jurisprudential Dialogue in the Making”
María Gabriela Trompetero Vicent, Bielefeld University: “Paradigm Shift? How a Migrant Security Institution Incorporated a Rights Perspective Into its Logic: The Case of Colombia”
Marcia A. Vera Espinoza, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh: "Human Rights and Refugee Protection in Latin America: Exploring the Tensions between Care and Control in Forced Displacement"
Chair: Giulia Santomauro, Associated MeDiMi Researcher, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa

 

[ 12:30–14:00 Lunch break ]

 

Session D

Format: Roundtable

“Human Rights Law in Migration Societies: Migrants’ Rights before the Courts”

Time: 14:00–15:30

Location: Bar Menachem Hörsaal (HS 5)

Speakers:

Anuscheh Farahat, University of Vienna
Hanaa Hakiki, ECCHR, Berlin
Mario Savino, Tuscia University, Viterbo  
Chair: Janna Wessels, MeDiMi Researcher, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

 

[ 15:30–16:00 Coffee break ]

 

Session E

Format: Parallel Panels

Time: 16:00–17:30

 

Panel E1: Trends in Jurisprudence

Location: Seminarraum 44

Panelists:

Alan Desmond, University of Leicester: “State Sovereignty and International Migrants’ Rights in Europe: Plus ça Change, Plus c’est la Même Chose?”
Ben Hudson, University of Exeter: “Asylum and Vulnerability at the European Court of Human Rights”
Jonathan Kiessling, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg: “Proceduralization as Humanrightization: Recent ECtHR Expulsion Case Law and the Doctrinal Struggle for a Procedural Frame" 
Chair: Mónica Ávila Currás, MeDiMi Researcher, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

 

Panel E2: Health & Work

Location: Seminarraum 43

Panelists:

Marie Diekmann, German Institute for Human Rights, Berlin: “Human Rights in Business: The Case of Migrant Workers”
Anna Kompatscher, Europa-Universität Flensburg: “The Right to Healthcare for Undocumented Migrants in France, Germany and Italy"
Oumaima Ramdani, Mohammed V University, Rabat: “Migrants’ Right to Health in Morocco: Will and Reality”
Chair: Maik Paap, MeDiMi Researcher, Justus Liebig University Giessen

 

Panel E3: Imaginaries of Migration

Location: Seminarraum 021 (Altbau)

Panelists:

Ester Minga, Portuguese Catholic University, Lisbon: “Humanity Through the Portuguese Gaze: Mediated Emotions, Colonial Imagery, and Populism Phenomena”
Daniela Peruzzo, Essex University: “The Victim, the Saviour, and the Persecutor: A Jungian Informed Discourse Analysis on the 'Diciotti Case'"
Chair: Benjamin Bunk, MeDiMi Researcher, Justus Liebig University Giessen

 

Panel E4: Ethics of Rights

Location: Seminarraum 45

Panelists:

Hannah Katz, University of Haifa: “The Ethical Dimensions of Migrant Rights Lawyering at Europe’s External Borders”
Stefania Maffeis, University of Applied Sciences for Social Work, Education and Nursing, Dresden: “Human Rights on the Move: The Idea of a Right to Have Rights in Political Theories of Migration and in Solidarity Cities of Europe”
Chair: Michaela Hailbronner, MeDiMi Researcher, University of Münster

 

[ 17:30–18:00 Coffee break ]

 

Session F

Format: Roundtable

“What Does Democracy Mean in Migration Societies? Human Rights, Participation, and Solidarity”

Time: 18:00–19:30

Location: Bar Menachem Hörsaal (HS 5)

Speakers:

Klaas Müller, Verfassungsblog, Berlin
Hidaya Nampiima & Fanny van der Vooren, Here to Support, Amsterdam
Elizabeth Ngari, Women in Exile, Potsdam
Chairs:

Anna Arden, MeDiMi Researcher, Justus Liebig University Giessen
Maria Hartmann, MeDiMi Researcher, Philipps University Marburg
 

[ From 19:30 Dinner and informal get-together at the venue ]

 

Fri, Sept 20, 2024

Session G

Format: Plenary Panel

“The Making of Human Rights Consciousness in Migration Societies”

Time: 09:00–10:30

Location: Bar Menachem Hörsaal (HS 5)

Speakers:

Aghogho Akpome, University of Zululand: “Human Rights during the European Refugee ‘Crisis’: An Analysis of Selected Texts and Personal Accounts”
Andrea Fritsche, University of Innsbruck: “Spaces for Rights Consciousness within the Everyday of Asylum Seeking”
Joachim Savelsberg, University of Minnesota: “Migrant NGOs as Actors and Narrators in Human Right Trials”
Chair: Greta Olson, MeDiMi Researcher, Justus Liebig University Giessen

 

[ 10:30–11:00 Coffee break ]

 

Session H

Format: Parallel Panels

Time: 11:00–12:30

 

Panel H1: Framing of Rights

Location: Seminarraum 44

Panelists:

Jens T. Theilen, Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg: “Framing Migration in Human Rights”
Barbara von Rütte, University of Basel: “The Right to Have Rights? A Human Right to Citizenship in a Migration Context”
Catharina Ziebritzki, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg: “Human Rights and Exceptionalism in European Migration Law”
Chair: Frederik von Harbou, MeDiMi Researcher, University of Applied Sciences Jena

 

Panel H2: Politics of Rights

Location: Seminarraum 45

Panelists:

Lisa Marie Borrelli, University of Applied Science HES-SO Valais-Wallis: “Permanent Temporariness as a Return-Based Approach: Syrian Refugee Integration or its Lack of it in the Neighboring Region”
Marlene Joger, University of Bamberg: “Human Rights as a Source of Legitimacy? An Analysis of Human Rights Narratives in Migration-related Discourse in the European Parliament”
Lena Laube, University of Bonn: “What do the Ships Symbolize? Rationales and Motivations for Supporting Search and Rescue NGOs on the High Seas”
Chair: Laura Holderied, MeDiMi Researcher, Justus Liebig University Giessen

 

Panel H3: Knowledge Cultures of Rights

Location: Seminarraum 43

Panelists:

Angélica Cocomá, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale): “Privilege and Vulnerability: Exploring the Human Rights Lexicon of High-Skilled Female Migrants”
Maria-Artemis Kolliniati, Technical University of Darmstadt: “Interpreting Human Rights: Asylum Centers from Communitarianism to Egalitarian Liberalism”
Angelika Poferl, Technical University of Dortmund: “‘Human Rights Culture’? Plural Dignities, Knowledge Cultures and the Existential Aesthetics of Human Rights”
Chair: Dariuš Zifonun, MeDiMi Researcher, Philipps University Marburg

 

[ 12:30–13:00 Lunch packages ]

 

Session I

Format: Concluding Keynote

“Research on Human Rights and Migration: The Way Forward”

Time: 13:00–14:30

Location: Bar Menachem Hörsaal (HS 5)

Speaker: Anuscheh Farahat, University of Vienna

Chair: Michael Knipper, MeDiMi Researcher, Justus Liebig University Giessen