Over the last 50 years, and particularly with the huge growth in asylum seekers over the past 10 years, the interpretation and application of 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 highly successful conferences in London and Nijmegen in the previous two years. The secretariat is conducted in the Section of administrative law of the Court of first instance (rechtbank) in Haarlem, the Netherlands. |
