III.3.3.1 Regional

Main Debate

  • How do mixed migration movements affect the protection needs of refugees who migrate with other forms of migrants within the region?

Main Point

  • Increased intra-regional mobility is compounded by factors such as climate change and environmental degradation.

Treaties

  1. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Revised Treaty of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), 24 July 1993.
  2. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), 1990 Supplementary Protocol A/SP.2/5/90 on the Implementation of the Third Phase (Right to Establishment).
  3. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), 1989 Supplementary Protocol A/SP.1/6/89 amending and complementing the provisions of Article 7 of the Protocol on Free Movement, Right of Residence and Establishment.
  4. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), 1986 Supplementary Protocol A/SP.1/7/86 on the Second Phase (Right of Residence).
  5. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), 1985 Supplementary Protocol A/SP.1/7/85 on the Code of Conduct for the implementation of the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, the Right of Residence and Establishment.
  6. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Treaty of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), 28 May 1975. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), 1979 Protocol A/P.1/5/79 Relating to Free Movement of Persons, Residence and Establishment, 29 May 1979.

Readings

Core

  1. UNHCR, Protecting Refugees and Other Persons on the Move in the ECOWAS Space, January 2001.
  2. UNHCR, West Africa as a Migration and Protection Area, November 2008.
  3. UNHCR, ‘Regional Conferences on Refugee Protection and International Migration in Central America, Western Africa, Eastern Africa and Asia - Selected Conference Materials’, June 2011. pp. 31-55.
  4. Adepoju, A. Boulton, and M. Levin, ‘Promoting Integration Through Mobility: Free Movement Under ECOWAS’ Refugee Survey Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 3 (2010), pp. 120-144.
  5. E. Lester, ’Work, the Right to Work and Durable Solutions: A Study on Sierra Leonean Refugees in the Gambia’, International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 17 (2005), pp. 331-393.

Extended

  1. M.T. Ladan, ‘Freedom of Movement and the Protection of the Rights of Refugees and Asylum Seekers’, Paper presented at International Conference on the Free Movement of Persons, the Protection of Refugees and the Role of the Ecowas Community Court of Justice organized by UNHCR and the Ecowas Court of Justice, Abuja, 21-23 January 2009.