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WELCOME TO THE IARMJ

It is now over 70 years since the international community settled on a Convention to provide surrogate protection for people with a well-founded fear of being persecuted for one of the five Convention reasons.  Article 1A(2) of the Refugee Convention provides the cornerstone of international protection in stating that a refugee is a person who:

"... owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it."

Over this period, and with the huge growth in those seeking protection over the past 25 years, the Convention has become a highly relevant, often contentious, piece of international law.  Increasingly, both countries who are signatories to the Convention and those who are not, have turned to appellate judges and adjudicators to give independent interpretation and application of refugee law.  It was against this background that the International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ) was formed in Warsaw in 1997, following two  successful conferences in London (1995) and Nijmegen (1996).  In March 2019, the Association was changed to the International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges (IARMJ), to better reflect the increasing body of migration work undertaken by judges.

OBJECTS
The International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges seeks to foster recognition that protection from persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion is an individual right established under international law, and that the determination of refugee status and its cessation should be subject to the rule of law.