*** ERIKA FELLER, VOLKER TURK, FRANCES NICHOLSON (Eds.): La protection des réfugiés en droit international. De Boeck / Larcier (39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5480711 - Fax: (32-10) 482750 - Internet: http://www.larcier.com ). "Droit international" series. 2008, 835 pp. ISBN 978-2-8044-2385-8.
The 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol on the status of refugees are fundamental legal documents in that they make human beings internationally sacred by introducing the right of being protected if one has to flee their country as a result of persecution. The problem is that these documents are sometimes subject to restricted readership at national or even regional level. This is the situation in most countries which accept groups of refugees, making it necessary, explain Volker Türk and Frances Nicholson in the introduction, "to introduce sharing mechanisms rather than transferring the burden, in order to establish, as the appropriate time, a sharing of responsibilities in any given situation" - which, in the European context, sends one back to appeals for help that have been coming from the leaders of Malta for months now… Other phenomena, some of which are controversial, have not acted in favour of the refugees' cause. Firstly, the rise of xenophobia and intolerance of foreigners, with the aggravating circumstance, explain the authors of the introduction, that "some of the media and some politicians seem ever more prone to take advantage of this situation to suit their own interests". The security frenzy generated by the 11 September 2001 attacks has also led some countries to tighten procedures for accepting asylum seekers or even to refuse to even agree to process some asylum seekers. The climate has not been simplified by the increasing numbers of illegal immigrants, although this can even be seen, comment Türk and Nicholson, "as being in part the result of the restrictive immigration policies of many industrialised nations, which force economic migrants and refugees to use illegal methods, whether in terms of seeking a better life or, more fundamentally, protection from persecution". These issues are high on the European Union's agenda.
Some people have tended in recent years to question the relevance of the Convention, recommending root-and-branch reform or for it to be simply abandoned. Assistant high commissioner for protection Erika Feller argues that these conclusions are mistaken and dangerous because the principles the Convention is based upon are more valuable and necessary than ever. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees organised global consultations at the start of the Millennium to back states' commitment to provide protection for refugees, taking account of the modern challenges they are facing and detailing the scope of their duties and obligations. This book in French is the translation of a book published in English in 2003: "Refugee Protection in International Law: UNHCR's Global Consultations on International Protection". It provides an accurate account of this clarification work, which also underlies the UNHCR's guiding principles. The book starts with a general description of refugee protection in international law and one of the first articles looks at age and gender when it comes to interpreting the 1951 Convention and the Declaration adopted by stakeholders in 2001. There are then nine chapters on essential aspects of interpretation of the Convention - the contents and scope of the principle of not turning people away, entering countries without the required paperwork, belonging to a social group, gender-related persecution, the possibility to escape, set up and be protected in other part of the home country, exclusion clauses (to prevent terrorists and the perpetrators of genocide from abusing asylum legislation), clauses on stopping the granting of refugee status, family unity and re-unification and the UNHCR's duty of surveillance as set out in its rules of operation. Each chapter opens with the updated working document written by experts to structure the debate, followed by the conclusions of the round table discussion on the working document.
The book is a wonderful working document which will be invaluable to anyone - lawyers, judges, EU and national civil servants, ministers and Commissioners - with duty or the task of ensuring application of rules concerning foreigners, people in other words who are responsible for interpreting such law. In order for the book's interpretations to be of productive use, they need to be considered in connection with the appeal made in December 2001 by a former refugee who went on to become the President of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga: "I beg you (…) when you think of refugee problems in the future, don't do it in the abstract. Don't think of refugees from the viewpoint of bureaucratic decision-making, or in terms of the statements and priorities that have be adopted (…). I beg you, think of the human beings who will be affected by your decisions, think of the lives that are counting on your aid." Surely this is the only correct way to interpret the duty of care that falls on us all?
Michel Theys
*** DITA VOGEL (Ed.): Highly Active Immigrants. A resource for European civil societies. Peter Lang (1 Moostrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.de - Internet: http://www.peterlang.de ). 2008, 250 pp, €25-20. ISBN 978-3-631-56203-9.
Using the results of the Politis (interviews with more than 170 immigrants in twenty-four EU Member States), this study looks at 'highly active' first generation immigrants, who "assume responsibility in politics and civil society" in a peaceful manner. Voted best practical intercultural project in 2006, the full utility of Politis is shown here - analysing the way highly active immigrants get involved in civic activities, and how they view EU Member States' "societal opportunity structure". After a series of chapters analysing the general surroundings in which the immigrants in question live, the book summarises this research project's empirical outcomes - what motivates the individuals concerns, the ideal conditions for getting them involved in society, their progress in the field of politics, the importance of naturalisation in terms of involvement in society, the EU's ability to support this process, etc. In the final section of the book, the authors submit a raft of reflections and recommendations on how to boost immigrants' involvement in European society. They recommend, for example, that official discourse should be of 'involvement' rather than 'integration'. The only book of its type, it is extremely useful in that it casts a new eye over the phenomenon of immigration. (TBa)
*** JOSEPH WRESINSKI: Refuser la misère. Une pensée politique née de l'action. Editions du Cerf (29 Bld La Tour Maubourg, F-75007 Paris. Internet: http://www.editionsducerf.fr ) and Editions Quart Monde (33 rue Bergère, F-75009 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 42464144 - email: editions@atd-quartrmonde.org - Internet: http://www.editionsquartmonde.org ). 2007, 288 pp, €22. ISBN 978-2-204-07982-2.
Joseph Wresinski (1917-1988) is famous as the founder of the international "ATD-Quart Monde" movement, an association of 'permanent volunteers' working on a full-time basis, of allies (in other words, active members) and individuals and families living on the fringes of society in various degrees and types of poverty (often for entire generations), who often come up against overt or covert discrimination. Independent of the public authorities, political parties and religious organisations (even though Joseph Wresinski himself was a Catholic priest), the movement operates in many countries in Europe and beyond, in so-called 'developed' countries and those described as 'developing'.
This book comprises a series of Joseph Wresinski's writings and speeches from 1973 to 1987, like the preface to a book, reports commissioned by national and international bodies, conference speeches, etc. Three conclusions emerge from the book - the first is that people have little understanding of the lives of those living in dire poverty. They are often feared, sometimes felt sorry for or, at best, they are helped but not without a hefty dose of prejudice because 'they are just not like us'… The second conclusion, political this time, is that rhetoric about human rights is a nonsense if it does not cover the entirety of formally recognised rights in our so-called 'highly developed' societies. In other words, respect for human rights cannot be separated off from genuinely seeking to meet people's basic requirements. The third conclusion is that political stakeholders - governments, parties and individuals - need extensive, in-depth research in order to be able to take effective action and this research should be carried out with the involvement of people who themselves live in a precarious situation of poverty or are excluded from society. The very last sentence in the book sums it up very succinctly: "Poverty is generated by human beings and only human beings can destroy it"… (J-RR)
*** PETER A. KRAUS: A Union of Diversity. Language, Identity and Polity-Building in Europe. Cambridge University Press (The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, IK. Tel: (44-1223) 326050 - Fax: 326111 - email: directcustserve@cambridge.org - Internet: http://www.cambridge.org ). "Themes in European Governance" series. 2008, 229 pp, £17-99. ISBN 978-0-521-67672-4.
This book has been published most appropriately, bang in the middle of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. Part of the "Themes in European Governance" series of the best theoretical research into the impact of EU governance on the institutions, policies and identity of the Member States, it focuses on research into language policy. The author writes that this would have "evident practical consequences for the citizens of the Union" and from the basis of political and economic integration in modern society. but the legitimisation by experience model dear to Jean Monnet has aged and the EU of experts has to give way to democratic legitimisation and "European identity cannot be established one-sidedly from above". Le remedy for this requires respect for culture and diversity. The author argues that the policies implemented to date are a failure in this connection as the no votes in the referendums and the growing democratic deficit in the European Union illustrate. Recommending a reconciliation between unity and diversity as set out in the European Constitution, Peter A. Kraus makes a critical analysis of the EU's response to the challenge of creating a new political structure "which allows cultural differences to be transcended without ignoring them". The book contains seven chapters on the EU's potential to become a 'constitutional community', the EU's identity dilemma (between national and European identity), problems with the language system in the EU, and the advent of a European public arena. A highly comprehensive and up-to-the-moment study. (TBa)
*** JEROEN SCHEERDER, CHARLOTTE VAN TUYCKOM, AN VERMEERSCH (Eds.): Europa in Beweging. Sport vanuit Europees perspectief. Academia Press (2 Eeckhout, B-9000 Ghent. Tel: (32-9) 2338088 - Fax: 2331409 - email: info@academiapress.be - Internet: http://www.academiapress.be ) and PVLO (17 Waterkluiskaai, B-9040 Ghent. Tel: (32-9) 2189121. email: info@pvlo.be - Internet: http://www.pvlo.be ). 2007, 236 pp. ISBN 978-90-382-1170-1.
Prefaced by EU Commissioner Jan Figel, this academic book in Dutch looks at sport in the European context. The first section considers various aspects of the sports policy being developed in Europe - like how EU law will apply to sport (with various references to the European Court of Justice's Bosman ruling that is still being appealed against), involvement in sports in the 27 EU Member States, EU case law concerning the relationship between sport and the media, and so on. The second part focuses on two major sports in the EU, football and cycling. MEP (and former journalist) Yves Belet looks in this section at football as a social phenomenon and as a financial and economic issue. There is a very interesting article by Charlotte Van Tuykom on whether sport can help people become aware of a European identity, observing that the people who are the most critical of the EU are also those calling most loudly for an EU policy on sport. (PBo)
*** FRANS DE WEGER: The Jurisprudence of the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber. TMC Asser Press (20-22 R.J. Schimmelpennincklaan, P.O. Box 30461, 2500 GL The Hague, The Netherlands. Tel: (31-70) 3420300 - Fax: 3420359 - Internet: http://www.asser.nl ). email "Asser International Sports Law Series". 2008, 728 pp. ISBN 978-90-6704-271-0.
Wholly devoted to the International Federation of Football Association's Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) that was set up in 2001, this book contains all you need to know about the DRC which has become crucially important in its few years of existence and has a big impact on the international football world. It has become a key part of FIFA's strategy to achieve uniform rules around the globe. Under strong pressure from the CRL's umbrella organisation, the committee responsible for players' terms and conditions, the DRC regulates legal disputes about players' terms and conditions and the transfer of players. It decides on questions like breach of contract for whatever reason. The book is divided into three parts. The first section analyses the rules applied by the DRC on the terms and conditions and transfer of players and the relevance of these rules. The second explains the decision-making process and the third describes the DRC's most important rulings in various categories (depending on the legal aspects and type of contract in question). The book will 'help to guide all those with a sporting and financial interest in professional football'…(TBa)