@techreport{CostelloGroenendijkHalleskovStorgaard, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Costello, Cathryn and Groenendijk, Kees and Halleskov Storgaard, Louise}, title = {Realising the Right to Family Reunification of Refugees in Europe}, abstract = {This issue paper examines family reunification for refugees as a pressing human rights issue. Without it, refugees are denied their right to respect for family life, have vastly diminished integration prospects and endure great additional unnecessary suffering, as do their family members. The Commissioner for Human Rights calls on all Council of Europe member states to uphold their human rights obligations and ensure the practical effectiveness of the right to family reunification for refugees and other international protection beneficiaries. To do so, states should (re-)examine their laws, policies and practices relating to family reunification for refugees. This issue paper contains 36 recommendations to that end.}, language = {en} } @techreport{GuildCostelloMorenoLax, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Guild, Elspeth and Costello, Cathryn and Moreno-Lax, Violeta}, title = {Implementation of the 2015 Council Decisions establishing provisional measures in the area of international protection for the benefit of Italy and of Greece}, abstract = {This study, commissioned by the European Parliament's Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, examines the EU's mechanism of relocation of asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to other Member States. It examines the scheme in the context of the Dublin System, the hotspot approach, and the EU-Turkey Statement, recommending that asylum seekers' interests, and rights be duly taken into account, as it is only through their full engagement that relocation will be successful. Relocation can become a system that provides flexibility for Member States and local host communities, as well as accommodating the agency and dignity of asylumseekers. This requires greater cooperation from receiving States, and a clearer role for a single EU legal and institutional framework to organise preference matching and rationalise efforts and resources overall.}, language = {en} } @techreport{GuildCostelloGarlicketal., type = {Working Paper}, author = {Guild, Elspeth and Costello, Cathryn and Garlick, Madeline and Moreno-Lax, Violeta}, title = {Enhancing the Common European Asylum System and Alternatives to Dublin}, abstract = {Upon request by the LIBE committee, this study examines the reasons why the Dublin system of allocation of responsibility for asylum seekers does not work effectively from the viewpoint of Member States or asylum-seekers. It argues that as long as it is based on the use of coercion against asylum seekers, it cannot serve as an effective tool to address existing imbalances in the allocation of responsibilities among Member States. The EU is faced with two substantial challenges: first, how to prevent unsafe journeys and risks to the lives of people seeking international protection in the EU; and secondly, how to organise the distribution of related responsibilities and costs among the Member States. This study addresses these issues with recommendations aimed at resolving current practical, legal and policy problems.}, language = {en} } @techreport{GuildCostelloGarlicketal., type = {Working Paper}, author = {Guild, Elspeth and Costello, Cathryn and Garlick, Madeline and Moreno-Lax, Violeta and Mouzourakis, Minos}, title = {New Approaches, Alternative Avenues and Means of Access to Asylum Procedures for Persons Seeking International Protection}, abstract = {Upon request by the LIBE committee, this study examines the workings of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), in order to assess the need and potential for new approaches to ensure access to protection for people seeking it in the EU, including joint processing and distribution of asylum seekers. Rather than advocating the addition of further complexity and coercion to the CEAS, the study proposes a focus on front-line reception and streamlined refugee status determination, in order to mitigate the asylum challenges facing Member States, and guarantee the rights of asylum seekers and refugees according to the EU acquis and international legal standards.}, language = {en} } @techreport{KaytazCostello, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Kaytaz, Esra and Costello, Cathryn}, title = {Building Empirical Research into Alternatives to Detention: Perceptions of Asylum-Seekers and Refugees in Toronto and Geneva}, abstract = {Recent research in Toronto and Geneva indicates that asylum seekers and refugees are predisposed to be cooperative with the refugee status determination (RSD) system and other immigration procedures, and that the design of alternatives to detention can create, foster and support this cooperative predisposition - or can undermine or even demolish it.}, language = {en} } @techreport{LazarusCostelloGhaneaetal., type = {Working Paper}, author = {Lazarus, Liora and Costello, Cathryn and Ghanea, Nazila and Zeigler, Katja}, title = {Report on the evolution of Fundamental Rights Charters and Caselaw: A comparison of the EU, Council of Europe and UN Systems}, pages = {254}, abstract = {This report examines the human rights protection systems of the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union. It explores the substantive rights, protection mechanisms, modes of engagement within, and the interactions between each system. The report also outlines the protection of minority rights, and the political processes through which human rights and institutions evolve and interact. A series of recommendations are made on how to advance the EU human rights system.}, language = {en} } @techreport{Costello, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Costello, Cathryn}, title = {Report on Improving the Quality and Consistency of Asylum Decisions in the Council of Europe Member States}, abstract = {There are important shortcomings in terms of quality and consistency of the asylum decisions taken in the Council of Europe member states. As evidence of this, in 2007 acceptance rates varied considerably between 1\% and 39\% in countries receiving significant numbers of asylum seekers. The situation was even more dramatic when looking at certain specific groups of asylum seekers. For example, again in 2007, the acceptance rates for Iraqis seeking protection in Europe varied between 0 and 81\%. The very low recognition rates in certain countries, or for certain groups of asylum seekers, may be due to difficulties in accessing the asylum process, poor procedural safeguards in the asylum proceedings, restrictive and divergent interpretation of eligibility criteria, lack of objective and reliable country of origin information, poor evidential assessment, in particular the culture of disbelief in asylum adjudication, political pressure, lack of training of the relevant authorities and their personnel, or a combination of these factors. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe should be invited to prepare guidelines to address the difficulties outlined above. These guidelines should encourage Council of Europe member states to develop higher standards of protection, based on their own domestic standards of human rights or humanitarian impulse, reflecting the nature of the European Convention on Human Rights as a pan-European minimum standard. Furthermore the Committee of Ministers should consider a mechanism for monitoring the quality and consistency of asylum decisions, and to facilitate this task, consider guidelines on harmonisation of asylum data across Council of Europe member states, taking into account work already carried out at by the European Union. The Committee of Ministers should also review the asylum curriculum in member states and develop training programmes, tools and data-bases of jurisprudence of asylum decisions across Europe. Finally, there is a pressing need for the Committee of Ministers to establish a new inter-governmentalCommittee with a permanent mandate to examine asylum and refugee issues to replace the work formerly carried out by the Ad hoc Committee of experts on the legal aspects of territorial asylum, refugees and stateless persons (CAHAR).}, language = {en} } @book{BacikCostelloDrew, author = {Bacik, Ivana and Costello, Cathryn and Drew, Eileen}, title = {Gender InJustice: Towards the Feminisation of the Legal Professions?}, isbn = {0953497917}, publisher = {Hertie School}, pages = {431}, language = {en} } @incollection{Costello, author = {Costello, Cathryn}, title = {European Community Judicial Review in the Irish Courts - Scope, Standards and Separation of Powers}, series = {Irish perspectives on EC law}, booktitle = {Irish perspectives on EC law}, editor = {Lucey, Mary Catherine and Keville, Cathrina}, publisher = {Round Hall Ltd}, address = {Dublin}, isbn = {978-1-85800-280-4}, publisher = {Hertie School}, pages = {17 -- 50}, language = {en} } @book{Costello, author = {Costello, Cathryn}, title = {The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law}, editor = {Costello, Cathryn and Foster, Michelle and McAdam, Jane}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, address = {Oxford}, isbn = {9780198848639}, publisher = {Hertie School}, pages = {1344}, abstract = {The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law is a comprehensive, critical work, which analyses the state of research across the refugee law regime as a whole. Drawing together leading and emerging scholars, the Handbook provides both doctrinal and theoretical analyses of international refugee law and practice. It critiques existing law from a variety of normative positions, with several chapters identifying foundational flaws that open up space for radical rethinking. Many authors work directly in the field, and their contributions demonstrate how scholarship and practice can mutually inform each other. Contributions assess a wide range of international legal instruments relevant to refugee protection, including from international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international migration law, the law of the sea, and international and transnational criminal law. Geographically, contributors examine regional and domestic laws and practices from around the world, with 10 chapters focused on specific regions. This Handbook provides an account, as well as a critique, of the status quo, and in so doing it sets the agenda for future academic research in international refugee law.}, language = {en} }