Joseph Rikhof Successfully Defends Doctoral Thesis on Exclusion of Refugees

From left, myself, Joe Rikhof, Prof. Guy Goodwin-Gill and Dr. Shane Darcy

Joseph Rikhof yesterday defended his doctoral thesis entitled 'The Relationship between Refugee Exclusion Law and International Law: Convergence or Divergence?' at the Irish Centre for Human Rights. The thesis deals with the exclusion clauses in the 1951 Refugee Convention, and particularly emphasises the relationship with international criminal law. The research was supervised by Dr Shane Darcy, who is himself a graduate of our doctoral programme, a first for the Irish Centre for Human Rights. The examiners were Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill of All Souls College, University of Oxford, who is one of the pre-eminent academics in the field of refugee law, and myself. Joseph has worked in the area of immigration law and war crimes within the Canadian government for many years and has many important publications. I note with some pride that he is the fourth Canadian to complete a doctoral thesis at the Irish Centre for Human Rights this year.

Congratulations, Joe, on this achievement.