In cooperation with the Nobel Institute, the University of Oslo (UiO) Faculty's research group on International Law and Governance organizes an event with Columbia University Professor Michael Doyle, UiO Professor Kjetil Mujezinovic Larsen, MIMC Commission Member Maggie Powers, and UiO Doctoral Research Fellow Özlem Gürakar-Skribeland who will be discussing the Model International Mobility Convention and the implications of a comprehensive global mobility regime. 

After nearly two years of study and debate convened by the Columbia Global Policy Initiative’s International Migration Project, the Model International Mobility Convention (MIMC) represents a consensus among over 40 academics and policymakers in the fields of migration, human rights, national security, labor economics, and refugee law. The MIMC provides a holistic and rights-based approach to international mobility that integrates the various regimes that seek to govern people on the move. In addition, it fills key gaps in international law that leave many people unprotected by establishing the minimum rights afforded to all people who cross state borders – whether as visitors, tourists, students, workers, residents, entrepreneurs, forced migrants, refugees, victims of trafficking, people caught in countries in crisis and family members – and defines their relationships to their communities of destination, origin, and transit. 

Speakers

Michael DOYLE, University Professor, Columbia University; Former Director, Columbia Global Policy Initiative. He is affiliated with the School of International and Public Affairs, the Department of Political Science, and the Law School. His research interests include international migration, international relations theory, international law, international peace-building and the United Nations. His most recent book is the Question of Intervention (Yale University Press, 2015). From 2006 to 2013, Doyle was an individual member and the chair of the UN Democracy Fund, a fund established in 2005 by the UN General Assembly to promote grass-roots democratization around the world. Doyle previously served as assistant secretary-general and special adviser for policy planning to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In the 1990’s he served as a peacekeeping adviser to High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata and in 2002 prepared a report on migration governance in the UN system for SG Kofi Annan. He has received two career awards from the American Political Science Association for his scholarship and public service and has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy for Political and Social Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He has an A.B. and Ph.D from Harvard University and an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Warwick (UK).

Özlem GÜRAKER-SKIRBELAND, Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, UiO. Özlem Gürakar Skribeland’s PhD is part of “Transnationalism from above and below: Migration management and how migrants manage” (MIGMA), a 2015-2019 research project funded by the Research Council of Norway. As part of the sub-project “The Legality of Return”, Özlem will explore the legal obligations of host states vis-à-vis people they are seeking to return. This exploration will involve understanding and mapping out how large bodies of national laws, international and human rights laws, and EU and Schengen rules interact in the context of transnational migration and return. Özlem grew up in Istanbul, Turkey. She obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree (LL.B.) from Galatasaray University, Turkey, and did her Master of Laws (LL.M.) as a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard Law School, USA. Özlem is qualified as a lawyer in Turkey, England and the USA, and has practiced law at international law firms in Istanbul and London. She is the author of the report "Seeking Asylum in Turkey: A Critical Review of Turkey's Asylum Laws and Practices", published by the Norwegian Organisation for Asylum Seekers (NOAS) in April 2016. Özlem joined the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law as a doctoral research fellow in August 2016.

Kjetil Mujezinovic LARSEN, Professor of Law, UiO Faculty of Law. Before moving to the University, Larsen worked in the Ministry of Justice's Legislation Department (2003-2006) and with the Norwegian Parliamentary Ombudsman (2002-2003). He was Secretary for the committee that prepared a new Administration of Estates Act ("Skiftelovutvalget"), 2005-2007. Larsen was a member in the Council of Europe's Working Party on Missing Persons (under CJ-FA) 2008-2009. University of Cambridge, in 2009. Larsen published his PhD thesis "The Human Rights Treaty Obligations of Peacekeepers" in the Cambridge University Press (2012). His research areas include international human rights law (particularly human rights in conflicts), international humanitarian law, and general international law (particularly the responsibility of international organizations). Larsen's ongoing research projects address primarily: 1) the application of human rights law in peace operations, and 2) missing and disappeared persons.

Maggie POWERS, Adviser, Welcoming and Integrated Societies Division, Open Society Foundations; Adviser, Columbia International Mobility Group (CIMG); Former Associate Director, Columbia Global Policy Initiative (CGPI), Columbia University. Ms. Powers directly oversaw the International Migration Project of the Global Policy Initiative, which established a leading presence in the migration and refugee policy space. In this role, she supported the mandate of the former Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration, Mr. Peter Sutherland, from 2014-2017; established partnerships with the UN Secretariat, IOM, UNHCR and others to host a Private Sector Forum on Migration and Refugees in 2016, and the NYC Global Mayors Summit on Migration and Refugee Policy and Practice in 2017. Ms. Powers is also a Commission Member of the Model International Mobility Convention. Maggie has also researched the normative evolution of the Responsibility to Protect at the United Nations and the impact of the 2011 Libyan intervention on the norm’s development. She completed an empirical study tracking member-state usage of Responsibility to Protect in the Security Council  from 2005-2014. This research was published in “The Responsibility to Protect After Libya” on openDemocracy.com (June 24, 2014) and in The International Journal of Human Rights (October 2015). Maggie is a graduate of Columbia University with an M.A. in Human Rights Studies and Loyola University Chicago with a B.A. in political science and international relations.