The Right to Remain, the Right to Return, and the Right to Seek Safety

Please join IRAP for a full-day symposium that will discuss the ways that international law applies to, and more important falls short of, addressing the continued displacement of Palestinians from their land and their rights while displaced. The keynote, given by Professor Susan Akram, and panel discussions will explore the protracted situation of Palestinians in the occupied territories and in exile and their right to remain, return, and seek safety rooted within different legal frameworks, including international refugee and humanitarian law.

Registration required. Register here.

Professor Susan Akram has lectured on Palestinian refugees to general audiences around the world as well as to committees of the United Nations (including the High Commission for Refugees and the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees), the European Union, and representatives of European and Canadian government ministries and parliaments.

Professor Akram directs Boston University Law’s International Human Rights Clinic, in which she supervises students engaged in international advocacy in domestic, international, regional, and UN fora. She teaches or has taught courses in International Human Rights, Refugee and Migration law, US Immigration law and Palestinian Refugees under International Law. Her research and publications focus on immigration, asylum, refugee, forced migration and human and civil rights issues, with an interest in the Middle East, the Arab, and Muslim world.

Full Program

10 am ET
Panel 1 : Palestine 101 and the Rights of Palestinians in Exile

Speakers: Laila Abdelaziz and Yara Chehwane (IRAP staff member and former UNRWA legal aid division staffer)

12 pm ET
Keynote with Professor Susan Akram

1:30 pm ET
Optional Lunch Session for Students & Community Members:
 Community Organizing and Campus Mobilization for the Struggle of Palestinian Liberation

Speakers: Haliema Twam and Charlotte Haq (IRAP staff member)

3 pm ET
Panel 2: Leveraging Court Interventions to Combat Complicity in War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, and Genocide

With a focus on restrictions to freedom of movement during conflicts
Speakers: Samah Sisay and Maria Kari

4:30 pm ET
Closing: The Power of Storytelling: A Spoken Word Performance by Palestinian Poet Sara Abou Rashed