Refugee Survey Quarterly
Volume 33 Issue 4 December 2014
http://rsq.oxfordjournals.org/content/current

Protection Closer to Home? A Legal Case for Claiming Asylum at Embassies and Consulates
Kate Ogg*
Lecturer in Law, Australian National University.
Abstract
If a person enters an embassy or consulate and claims asylum, is there a legal obligation under international refugee law or human rights law to consider that claim and, if the requirements are satisfied, grant protection? Previous research on this question has concluded that no such obligation exists pursuant to the non-refoulement obligations in the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. However, case-law over the past decade has shifted and strengthened the reach of non-refoulement under international refugee law and human rights law. This article will demonstrate that this more recent jurisprudence provides strong grounds to argue that embassies and consulates are, in certain circumstances, obligated to consider a claim for asylum and, if the requirements are met, grant protection.

Filling in the Gap: Refugee Returnees Deploy Higher Education Skills to Peacebuilding
Amanda Coffie*
Amanda Coffie is a part-time lecturer at the Department of Political Science and Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract
An urgently needed resource for peacebuilding is a professional and skilled workforce, however, this is lacking in many post-conflict countries. In this article it is suggested that although fewer refugees in developing countries have access to the level of education required for such professions, countries engaged in peacebuilding can benefit from the returnees with such skills. This study therefore, examines the differences in the levels of higher education of 40 Liberian returnees from Ghana and Guinea and the deployment of their skills towards their integration which have links to the broader peacebuilding agenda of Liberia. While the number of returnees with post-secondary education was generally low, the data indicate that comparatively those from Guinea had limited higher education opportunities to those who were in Ghana. Following from these cases, the article argues that insecurity and non-conducive asylum policies and programmes are the major challenges towards the provision of and refugee access to higher education skills training. Some examples of returnees’ deployment of asylum acquired profession and skills towards peacebuilding are discussed as evidence that the provision of higher education for refugees is not simply a tool for empowering refugees, but also an investment in future peacebuilding.