Protecting Syrian Refugees: A Timely Report

With the refugee crisis boiling over in Europe and President Obama’s announcement that the US would accept 10,000 Syrian refugees, the Boston University International Law Clinic’s late 2014 report, Protecting Syrian Refugees: Laws, Policies, and Global Responsibility Sharing, provides some important background and perspective.   The result of two years of fieldwork and legal/policy analysis, the report develops a series of original proposals for a comprehensive worldwide plan of action that involves a mixture of short-term and long-term resettlement strategies, including approaches to social integration.   The report is a companion piece to a recent publication from Oxford addressing the issue from a European perspective.  Kudos to the BU law students and their faculty advisor, Susan Akram, for taking on such a complex and fraught issue, and contributing to the debate about human rights approaches to this refugee crisis in the US and abroad.