Maja Janmyr
Biographic Data
| ID | 4466397 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maja Janmyr |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maja |
| FAMILY NAME | Janmyr |
| SIGNATURE | JANMYR M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oslo |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4851-7434 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 122 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
A Duty from a Bygone Era? On UNHCR’s Promotion of New Accessions to the Refugee Convention
Globalizing the international refugee regime
The global expansion of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is an understudied area of research, particularly in the Middle East. The issue is often framed through a linear, state-centric lens that oversimplifies its complexities and subordinates the role of microprocesses and individual actors. This article contributes to global and refugee history through a microhistorical study of the establishment of UNHCR’s branch offic…
Transit Beirut
A “most extraordinary” resettlement operation occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, during which thousands of Armenians from Bulgaria and Romania were systematically and discreetly resettled to the United States via Lebanon. This article explores how and why this small Levantine country became central to such a scheme and examines the roles of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the broader refugee regime in this resettlement…
I know about something called human rights
Disturbing the Work of the Office’
There is a tension in the policy and practice of refugee presence in and around the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The core principle of direct accessibility to UNHCR is continuously balanced against other competing concerns. But what, in policy and practice, are these competing concerns? And at what point does the presence of refugees and other protection seekers become illegitimate from the perspective of …
Saudi Arabia and the International Refugee Regime
As a non-signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, Saudi Arabia is often portrayed as a State that refuses engagement with the global legal norms and supporting institutions focused on the protection of refugees. This article contends that this is not the case, and closely examines Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the international refugee regime by asking what was Saudi Arabia’s role in the drafting of the main refugee prot…
UNHCR’s Expansion to the GCC States
How did the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) establish its presence in states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)? And how did it negotiate the legal frameworks needed to formally operate in these states? To answer these questions, the article focuses on the historical case of Saudi Arabia. Based on UNHCR archival material and interviews with key actors (including Government officials, UNHCR staff and individuals formerly l…
Ethnographic approaches and international refugee law
International refugee law permeates a plethora of international, national and local arenas and is developed, interpreted and applied by a wide range of very different actors. In this diversity of contexts, how do we best study the role and place of this body of law? This article advocates for the application of ethnographic approaches in the study of international refugee law, where the positivist legal approach heavily dominates the field. It ar…
Refugee Participation through Representative Committees
The notions of refugee participation and empowerment are core—but highly debated and poorly implemented—standards of humanitarian response. Drawing on empirical research in Lebanon, this article offers an account of the ways in which—and which not—meaningful refugee participation and empowerment are achieved through representative committees. Spotlighting the case of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)-supported Sudanese ref…
The 1951 Refugee Convention and Non-Signatory States
At the end of 2020, 149 States were party to the 1951 Convention, its 1967 Protocol, or both. Forty-four members of the United Nations, however, were not party to either of these core instruments. What is the influence of the 1951 Refugee Convention in non-signatory States? How do non-signatory States engage with, and help to create, the international refugee regime? Taking these questions as its starting point, this article aims to chart a new r…
Sudanese Refugees and the “Syrian Refugee Response” in Lebanon
By focusing on Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers in Lebanon, who in 2018 constituted 4 per cent of all persons of concern to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in that country, this article explores how the UNHCR protects and assists refugees not encompassed by the mainstream humanitarian response. The article finds that in terms of refugee recognition, resettlement, and overall protection, Sudanese refugees receive differen…
Human Rights References in Norway’s Readmission Agreements
Norway is a country with one of the highest numbers of readmission agreements in Europe, concluded with a view to ‘combat’ irregular migration and to facilitate return procedures. Despite the widespread perception that such agreements in a sense are human rights ‘neutral’, this article takes as starting point that the return of irregular migrants is one of the most vexed aspects of migration management, raising not only questions of cooperation b…
No Country of Asylum
How do States ‘legitimize’ their non-ratification of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees? This article examines the case of Lebanon, a country frequently hailed by the international community for its generosity towards refugees, and currently hosting the highest number of refugees in the world in proportion to its population size. While Lebanon engaged actively in the est…
UNHCR and the Syrian refugee response
When a host state rejects the international refugee law regime, yet faces an unprecedented number of refugees, how does the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) execute its mandate to provide international protection to these refugees? This paper seeks to attend to this pertinent issue by focusing on the role and practice of UNHCR in the context of the large-scale Syrian influx to Lebanon. This country insists that it is not a co…
Modes of Ordering
How and with what consequences are individuals fleeing the Syrian conflict to Lebanon given various legal, bureaucratic and social labels by humanitarian, state and local government actors? A wide array of labels are imposed; registered refugee, labourer, displaced and foreigner are only a few of the various categories that have developed to govern their presence. This article argues that each of these belongs to and reproduces various modes of o…
Human rights and Nubian mobilisation in Egypt
How are global human rights localised in authoritarian societies? How and what human rights discourses are mobilised by indigenous peoples to further their demands? Building upon original fieldwork among Nubian activists in Egypt, this article explores the complexities regarding human rights framing through a discussion of recognition of Nubian indigeneity. The article finds that the history and political experience of Egypt’s Nubians bring about…
Precarity in Exile
Lebanon has had an ambiguous approach to the more than one million Syrians seeking protection in the country since 2011. The country is neither party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, nor does it have any national legislation dealing with refugees. In October 2014, Lebanon’s Council of Ministers adopted the first comprehensive policy on Syrian displacement, one explicit goal of which is to decrease the number of Syrians i…
Nubians in Contemporary Egypt
Based on original fieldwork, this article examines how Nubians in Egypt have mobilized to demand a return to ancestral lands along the Nile River. It begins with a historically informed analysis explaining how any attempts to make demands from the Egyptian state long have been quashed, effectively constraining any comprehensive mobilization. It thereafter argues that the emergence of several unprecedented legal and political opportunities in the …
The Effectiveness of Norway's Readmission Agreements with Iraq and Ethiopia
This article offers an analysis of the effectiveness of Norway's readmission agreements with Iraq and Ethiopia. Through the use of readmission agreements, Norway aims to reduce irregular presence by increasing the number of both voluntary and forced returns, as well as discourage future irregular migration by sending a “clear signal” to individuals without protection needs that they will be returned when their asylum applications are rejected. Th…
Recruiting Internally Displaced Persons into Civil Militias
This article explores the state-sanctioned recruitment of internally displaced persons (IDPs) into civil militias in northern Uganda between 1996 and 2006. Drawing upon international and Ugandan domestic law, as well as empirical research in Uganda, it provides an illustrative case study of the circumstances in which IDPs were mobilised into an array of civil militias. By applying a framework elaborated by the UN Commission on Human Rights, it di…
Precarity in Exile
Lebanon has had an ambiguous approach to the more than one million Syrians seeking protection in the country since 2011. The country is neither party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, nor does it have any national legislation dealing with refugees. In October 2014, Lebanon’s Council of Ministers adopted the first comprehensive policy on Syrian displacement, one explicit goal of which is to decrease the number of Syrians i…
UNHCR and the Syrian refugee response
When a host state rejects the international refugee law regime, yet faces an unprecedented number of refugees, how does the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) execute its mandate to provide international protection to these refugees? This paper seeks to attend to this pertinent issue by focusing on the role and practice of UNHCR in the context of the large-scale Syrian influx to Lebanon. This country insists that it is not a co…
Modes of Ordering
How and with what consequences are individuals fleeing the Syrian conflict to Lebanon given various legal, bureaucratic and social labels by humanitarian, state and local government actors? A wide array of labels are imposed; registered refugee, labourer, displaced and foreigner are only a few of the various categories that have developed to govern their presence. This article argues that each of these belongs to and reproduces various modes of o…
Refugee Participation through Representative Committees
The notions of refugee participation and empowerment are core—but highly debated and poorly implemented—standards of humanitarian response. Drawing on empirical research in Lebanon, this article offers an account of the ways in which—and which not—meaningful refugee participation and empowerment are achieved through representative committees. Spotlighting the case of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)-supported Sudanese ref…
Sudanese Refugees and the “Syrian Refugee Response” in Lebanon
By focusing on Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers in Lebanon, who in 2018 constituted 4 per cent of all persons of concern to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in that country, this article explores how the UNHCR protects and assists refugees not encompassed by the mainstream humanitarian response. The article finds that in terms of refugee recognition, resettlement, and overall protection, Sudanese refugees receive differen…
Nubians in Contemporary Egypt
Based on original fieldwork, this article examines how Nubians in Egypt have mobilized to demand a return to ancestral lands along the Nile River. It begins with a historically informed analysis explaining how any attempts to make demands from the Egyptian state long have been quashed, effectively constraining any comprehensive mobilization. It thereafter argues that the emergence of several unprecedented legal and political opportunities in the …
Recruiting Internally Displaced Persons into Civil Militias
This article explores the state-sanctioned recruitment of internally displaced persons (IDPs) into civil militias in northern Uganda between 1996 and 2006. Drawing upon international and Ugandan domestic law, as well as empirical research in Uganda, it provides an illustrative case study of the circumstances in which IDPs were mobilised into an array of civil militias. By applying a framework elaborated by the UN Commission on Human Rights, it di…
I know about something called human rights
Ethnographic approaches and international refugee law
International refugee law permeates a plethora of international, national and local arenas and is developed, interpreted and applied by a wide range of very different actors. In this diversity of contexts, how do we best study the role and place of this body of law? This article advocates for the application of ethnographic approaches in the study of international refugee law, where the positivist legal approach heavily dominates the field. It ar…
The Effectiveness of Norway's Readmission Agreements with Iraq and Ethiopia
This article offers an analysis of the effectiveness of Norway's readmission agreements with Iraq and Ethiopia. Through the use of readmission agreements, Norway aims to reduce irregular presence by increasing the number of both voluntary and forced returns, as well as discourage future irregular migration by sending a “clear signal” to individuals without protection needs that they will be returned when their asylum applications are rejected. Th…
Disturbing the Work of the Office’
There is a tension in the policy and practice of refugee presence in and around the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The core principle of direct accessibility to UNHCR is continuously balanced against other competing concerns. But what, in policy and practice, are these competing concerns? And at what point does the presence of refugees and other protection seekers become illegitimate from the perspective of …
Human rights and Nubian mobilisation in Egypt
How are global human rights localised in authoritarian societies? How and what human rights discourses are mobilised by indigenous peoples to further their demands? Building upon original fieldwork among Nubian activists in Egypt, this article explores the complexities regarding human rights framing through a discussion of recognition of Nubian indigeneity. The article finds that the history and political experience of Egypt’s Nubians bring about…
Recruiting Internally Displaced Persons into Civil Militias
This article explores the state-sanctioned recruitment of internally displaced persons (IDPs) into civil militias in northern Uganda between 1996 and 2006. Drawing upon international and Ugandan domestic law, as well as empirical research in Uganda, it provides an illustrative case study of the circumstances in which IDPs were mobilised into an array of civil militias. By applying a framework elaborated by the UN Commission on Human Rights, it di…
The Effectiveness of Norway's Readmission Agreements with Iraq and Ethiopia
This article offers an analysis of the effectiveness of Norway's readmission agreements with Iraq and Ethiopia. Through the use of readmission agreements, Norway aims to reduce irregular presence by increasing the number of both voluntary and forced returns, as well as discourage future irregular migration by sending a “clear signal” to individuals without protection needs that they will be returned when their asylum applications are rejected. Th…
Precarity in Exile
Lebanon has had an ambiguous approach to the more than one million Syrians seeking protection in the country since 2011. The country is neither party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, nor does it have any national legislation dealing with refugees. In October 2014, Lebanon’s Council of Ministers adopted the first comprehensive policy on Syrian displacement, one explicit goal of which is to decrease the number of Syrians i…
Nubians in Contemporary Egypt
Based on original fieldwork, this article examines how Nubians in Egypt have mobilized to demand a return to ancestral lands along the Nile River. It begins with a historically informed analysis explaining how any attempts to make demands from the Egyptian state long have been quashed, effectively constraining any comprehensive mobilization. It thereafter argues that the emergence of several unprecedented legal and political opportunities in the …
No Country of Asylum
How do States ‘legitimize’ their non-ratification of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees? This article examines the case of Lebanon, a country frequently hailed by the international community for its generosity towards refugees, and currently hosting the highest number of refugees in the world in proportion to its population size. While Lebanon engaged actively in the est…
UNHCR and the Syrian refugee response
When a host state rejects the international refugee law regime, yet faces an unprecedented number of refugees, how does the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) execute its mandate to provide international protection to these refugees? This paper seeks to attend to this pertinent issue by focusing on the role and practice of UNHCR in the context of the large-scale Syrian influx to Lebanon. This country insists that it is not a co…
Modes of Ordering
How and with what consequences are individuals fleeing the Syrian conflict to Lebanon given various legal, bureaucratic and social labels by humanitarian, state and local government actors? A wide array of labels are imposed; registered refugee, labourer, displaced and foreigner are only a few of the various categories that have developed to govern their presence. This article argues that each of these belongs to and reproduces various modes of o…
Human rights and Nubian mobilisation in Egypt
How are global human rights localised in authoritarian societies? How and what human rights discourses are mobilised by indigenous peoples to further their demands? Building upon original fieldwork among Nubian activists in Egypt, this article explores the complexities regarding human rights framing through a discussion of recognition of Nubian indigeneity. The article finds that the history and political experience of Egypt’s Nubians bring about…
Human Rights References in Norway’s Readmission Agreements
Norway is a country with one of the highest numbers of readmission agreements in Europe, concluded with a view to ‘combat’ irregular migration and to facilitate return procedures. Despite the widespread perception that such agreements in a sense are human rights ‘neutral’, this article takes as starting point that the return of irregular migrants is one of the most vexed aspects of migration management, raising not only questions of cooperation b…
The 1951 Refugee Convention and Non-Signatory States
At the end of 2020, 149 States were party to the 1951 Convention, its 1967 Protocol, or both. Forty-four members of the United Nations, however, were not party to either of these core instruments. What is the influence of the 1951 Refugee Convention in non-signatory States? How do non-signatory States engage with, and help to create, the international refugee regime? Taking these questions as its starting point, this article aims to chart a new r…
Sudanese Refugees and the “Syrian Refugee Response” in Lebanon
By focusing on Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers in Lebanon, who in 2018 constituted 4 per cent of all persons of concern to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in that country, this article explores how the UNHCR protects and assists refugees not encompassed by the mainstream humanitarian response. The article finds that in terms of refugee recognition, resettlement, and overall protection, Sudanese refugees receive differen…
Ethnographic approaches and international refugee law
International refugee law permeates a plethora of international, national and local arenas and is developed, interpreted and applied by a wide range of very different actors. In this diversity of contexts, how do we best study the role and place of this body of law? This article advocates for the application of ethnographic approaches in the study of international refugee law, where the positivist legal approach heavily dominates the field. It ar…
Refugee Participation through Representative Committees
The notions of refugee participation and empowerment are core—but highly debated and poorly implemented—standards of humanitarian response. Drawing on empirical research in Lebanon, this article offers an account of the ways in which—and which not—meaningful refugee participation and empowerment are achieved through representative committees. Spotlighting the case of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)-supported Sudanese ref…
Saudi Arabia and the International Refugee Regime
As a non-signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, Saudi Arabia is often portrayed as a State that refuses engagement with the global legal norms and supporting institutions focused on the protection of refugees. This article contends that this is not the case, and closely examines Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the international refugee regime by asking what was Saudi Arabia’s role in the drafting of the main refugee prot…
UNHCR’s Expansion to the GCC States
How did the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) establish its presence in states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)? And how did it negotiate the legal frameworks needed to formally operate in these states? To answer these questions, the article focuses on the historical case of Saudi Arabia. Based on UNHCR archival material and interviews with key actors (including Government officials, UNHCR staff and individuals formerly l…
Disturbing the Work of the Office’
There is a tension in the policy and practice of refugee presence in and around the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The core principle of direct accessibility to UNHCR is continuously balanced against other competing concerns. But what, in policy and practice, are these competing concerns? And at what point does the presence of refugees and other protection seekers become illegitimate from the perspective of …
Transit Beirut
A “most extraordinary” resettlement operation occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, during which thousands of Armenians from Bulgaria and Romania were systematically and discreetly resettled to the United States via Lebanon. This article explores how and why this small Levantine country became central to such a scheme and examines the roles of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the broader refugee regime in this resettlement…
I know about something called human rights
A Duty from a Bygone Era? On UNHCR’s Promotion of New Accessions to the Refugee Convention
Globalizing the international refugee regime
The global expansion of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is an understudied area of research, particularly in the Middle East. The issue is often framed through a linear, state-centric lens that oversimplifies its complexities and subordinates the role of microprocesses and individual actors. This article contributes to global and refugee history through a microhistorical study of the establishment of UNHCR’s branch offic…
Law (17 works) · Political science (17 works) · Refugee (15 works) · Middle East Politics and Society (11 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Convention (5 works) · Human rights (5 works)