Martin Jones
E-mail:martin.jones@york.ac.uk
Telephone:+44 (1904) 325834
Staff
Martin Jones
BA, BA (Hons.) (Queen’s, Canada); LL.B. (UBC)
Martin Jones is a lecturer in international human rights law at the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York.
Martin has previously taught and served as a visiting researcher at Osgoode Hall Law School (Canada), Queen's University (Canada), the Centre for Refugee Studies (Canada), the University of East London (UK), Georgetown University (USA), the University of Michigan (USA), the American University in Cairo (Egypt) and, most recently, the University of Melbourne (Australia). Martin has been a member of the executive committee of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration and was chair of its 11th biennial conference in Cairo.
Martin conducts research on refugee and migration law and policy. His three main areas of research at present are (i) refugee law in Asia (or, rather, the broader “law of asylum” in that region); (ii) doctrinal issues in the interpretation of the definition of “refugee” in the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (in particular, the qualification of conscientious objectors for refugee status under this definition); and, (iii) the provision of legal services to and legal advocacy on behalf of refugees in the Global South (in particular, in the Middle East and Asia). His research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; the US Institute of Peace; and, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Martin’s research interests are rooted in and support his engagement in practice. He is a founding member of the Southern Refugee Legal Aid Network (a network of providers of legal services to refugees in the Global South) and is a member of its Steering Committee. He is also an advisor to the Steering Committee of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (a network of more than 100 refugee advocacy organisations in Asia) and previously chaired its Legal Aid Working Group. He has conducted training for and consulted to refugee legal aid providers in in Cyprus, Egypt, Hong Kong, Jordan, Malaysia and Turkey. He has been consulted for expert advice on refugee law and policy by the governments of Hong Kong, Indonesia and Canada and by UNHCR. In 2008, he co-founded the Egyptian Foundation for Refugee Rights which has become the largest provider of legal aid in domestic courts to refugees and migrants in Egypt. Before returning to academia, Martin was a refugee lawyer in Canada and represented asylum seekers and refugees at all levels of administrative and judicial review of their cases. He is co-author of the leading text on refugee law in Canda (with Sasha Baglay) which has been cited with approval in decisions by the Quebec Court of Appeal, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada.
In York, Martin is a trustee of the local NGO Refugee Action York, a member of the steering group of the York City of Sanctuary initiative, and helps to coordinate the celebrations in York of World Refugee Week (in June).
Martin coordinates the doctoral programme at the Centre and welcomes any inquiries about doctoral studies at the Centre. He will also be coordinating the Centre's public lecture programme in 2012-2013.
Selected publications
Books
Refugee Law (Irwin Law, Toronto, 2007) 469 pp. (with Sasha Baglay).
Selected book chapters
"Moving beyond Protection Space: Developing a law of asylum in South East Asia” in Susan Kneebone, Dallal Stevens, and Loretta Baldassar, eds. Conflicting Identities: Refugee Protection and the Role of Law (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013 (forthcoming)).
"The Governance Question: UNHCR, the Refugee Convention, and the International Refugee Regime” in James Simeon, ed. The UNHCR and the Supervision of International Refugee Law (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012 (in press)).
Selected journal articles
"Building a Better Refugee Status Determination System” Refuge, Volume 25, Issue 2 (Fall 2008) (with France Houle).
"Abandoning Refugees? An Analysis of the Legal Framework Governing Non-compliant Claimants in Canada” Refuge, Volume 25, Issue 2 (Fall 2008).
"The Refusal to Bear Arms as Grounds for Refugee Protection in the Canadian Jurisprudence” International Journal of Refugee Law, Volume 20, Issue 1 (March 2008).
"Lies, Damned Lies and Diplomatic Assurances: The Misuse of Diplomatic Assurances in Removal Proceedings” European Journal of Migration and Law, Volume 7, Number 4 (January 2006).
Selected practitioner publications
"Refugee Status Determination: Three Challenges” Forced Migration Review, Volume 32 (April 2009).
"Case Comment on Lee Seng Kee v. Sukatno and Ong Thean Soo” (National Human Rights Society of Malaysia [HAKAM]: Kuala Lumpur, September 2008).
"CRS Working Paper No. 2: Beyond Conscientious Objection: Canadian Refugee Jurisprudence on Military Service Evasion" Centre for Refugee Studies Working Papers. (August 2005).
Recent policy submissions
Submission of the Egyptian Foundation of Refugee Rights to the Constitutional Drafting Committee of the Egyptian Parliament (March 2012).
Recent trainings
"Refugee Law for Legal Aid Lawyers” hosted by the South Asian Network for Refugees, IDPs and Migrants (SANRIM) in Colombo, 21 and 22 April 2012.
"Refugee Empowerment and Advocacy in Egypt: Lessons Learned from civil society elsewhere and best practices" hosted by the Egyptian Foundation for Refugee Rights in Cairo, 27 to 29 September 2011.
Professional activities
Member of the Editorial Board, Journal of Human Rights Practice
Member of the Editorial Board, Human Rights Law Review of the UN University of Peace (Costa Rica)
Advisor to the Immigration Detention and International Law: Coding State Adherence to Norms Project of the Institut de hautes Etudes internationales et du Développement (Switzerland)
Member of the Advisory Committee, Health Equity Initiatives (Malaysia)
Member of the Executive Committee, Southern Refugee Legal Aid Network
Advisor to the Steering Committee, Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network
Vice-chairperson and member of the Board of Directors, Egyptian Foundation for Refugee Rights
Trustee, Refugee Action York
Member of the Management Group of the York City of Sanctuary project
Supervision
Martin is interested in supervising doctoral students pursuing PhD's in either law or politics in the fields of migration and refugee law and policy.
Martin is currently supervising PhD students doing research on:
Human trafficking in Saudi Arabia;
Refugees, civil society and the Arab Spring in Egypt;
The reduction of statelessness in Europe;
Advocacy and development of new international norms for mobile indigenous peoples.