Can The UK Be Held Accountable for Breaches of the Human Rights of Asylum-Seekers Transferred to Rwanda?

by Kathryn Allinson, University of Bristol Law School

On 14 April 2022, the UK and the Rwandan governments signed an MoU outlining plans for transferring asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda. The MoU has been subject to much criticism from academicsNGOs and the UNHCR. Criticism has focussed, first, on the attempts by the UK to divest itself of responsibility for asylum seekers. Second, it has highlighted the potential for further abuses of refugee and human rights law to occur against transferred individuals in Rwanda. The MoU is the latest in a range of mechanisms whereby States in the Global North attempt to externalise their borders and shift responsibility for refugees onto Global South states. (more…)

Can Russia be held responsible for their invasion of Ukraine?

This post is part of a short series of blog posts exploring the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine against the background rules of international law. The posts are based on presentations given at an event on the subject on 7 March that was organised by the University of Bristol Law School’s Centre for International Law. In this second blog post of the series, Dr Kathryn Allinson of the School of Law, University of Bristol, considers the possibility of invoking responsibility against Russia for their invasion of Ukraine. 

Dr. Kathryn Allinson, University of Bristol Law School

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In the early hours of 24 February, President Putin set out his justifications for the use of Russian military force against Ukraine. This was followed by the commencement of aerial strikes across Ukraine and the invasion by ground troops of Ukrainian territory. In this blog, I will explore the role that the international law on state responsibility (as articulated in the Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (ARSIWA)) can play in responding to this conduct by Russia.

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