The 1951 Refugee Convention and the Collapse of the International Order post 1945

Seyla Benhabib in Conversation with Dinah Riese

To open our new Digital Lecture Series Human Rights as the Last Utopia? Migration and Jewish History, we welcome political philosopher Seyla Benhabib. In conversation with journalist Dinah Riese (taz), she will discuss the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention as a key document of human rights protection. The discussion will address dilemmas that have been inherent to the Convention from the outset: the exclusion of countries in the Global South, the problematic assumptions underlying the categories of “protected groups”, as well as the bureaucratic and legal challenges involved in proving a “reasonable fear of persecution” in order to be recognized as a refugee.

Today, the utopian hope of the Convention that the persecuted would find safe haven, and that there could be a world without such persecution, lies in smithereens. Major signatories, such as the United States and the European Union, have developed all sorts of “non-entrée” (no entry), rendition and displacement techniques which have created “lawless zones and rightless subjects.” Seyla Benhabib discusses why the dilemmas in complying with the 1951 Convention may thus be the canary in the coalmine which anticipated the destructive policies of the new Trump Administration vis-à-vis a world order based on international law and human rights. The Digital Lecture Series reflects on the history, present, and future of human rights as a political promise that must be continuously defended. Against the backdrop of Jewish migration history, five scholars, together with journalist Dinah Riese (taz), examine the development of international refugee protection from diverse perspectives.

In the process, historical achievements become visible – achievements that are increasingly being questioned today. Which experiences from the past, and which legal or philosophical perspectives, can help overcome current limits in thinking about migration? And where can we find approaches in the here and now that point toward a more open future?

Seyla Benhabib

Seyla Benhabib was born in 1950 in Istanbul into a Sephardic-Turkish family. She is considered one of the most influential political philosophers and political theorists of the present. Until her retirement, she held the Eugene Meyer Professorship of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University and also taught at Harvard University and the New School for Social Research. Since then, Benhabib has conducted research and taught at Columbia Law School in New York. In 2025, she was awarded the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought. Her books include The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents, and Citizens (2004) and Dignity in Adversity: Human Rights in Troubled Times (2013).

Dinah Riese

Dinah Riese heads the domestic news desk at taz newspaper. Previously, she worked as a taz editor covering migration and integration. She has received multiple awards for her reporting on the so-called advertising ban on abortions, Paragraph 219a of the German Criminal Code. Her interview with survivors of the Halle attack was nominated for the Reporters’ Prize. In March 2022, she co-authored the book Selbstbestimmt. Für reproduktive Rechte (Self-Determined: For Reproductive Rights) with Gesine Agena and Patricia Hecht, published by Klaus Wagenbach.

 

We would like to thank the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung for supporting the Digital Lecture Series.

In media partnership with taz.

Meeting point: online

Booking: registration will be possible shortly

Next date:

• Date Wednesday, 27/May/2026 19:00
• Venue Jüdisches Museum Berlin
• Address Lindenstraße 14, 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg