A version of this article was first published here on Dejusticia’s Global Rights Blog.
The Syrian refugee crisis has garnered much attention from the media and the international community, but how do we channel this attention into action that results in effective and sustained protection of refugees? As Roni Amit and Loren Landau point out, the best legal regimes cannot guarantee protection if key stakeholders subvert them. James Hathaway makes a similar argument in regards to the Refugee Convention: the issue is not so much the law but rather its operationalization. Yet Bill Frelick highlights the disagreement about who should be the primary implementer—states or international organizations like the UNHCR—and, like Tim Finch and James Milner, he questions the viability of schemes that expect states to acquiesce to any external authority.
Missing in the debate so far, however, is the question of funding. Whether the solution is a revitalized UNHCR, a system of managed protection, or schemes that creatively align refugee protection with the interests of states, it will need adequate and sustained funding to work.
