Fatima Khan

Professor

Fatima Khan is an Professor and the  Director of the Refugee Rights Unit; a Research Unit incorporating a legal practice registered with the Cape Law Society. The Refugee Rights Unit is funded by the United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and operates as an implementing partner for the UNHCR in South Africa. 

Dr Khan is the Course Coordinator of three courses - Refugee and Immigration Law (PBL 4506F), Public Interest Litigation (PBL 4111 S) – two electives for final year students as well as the Refugee law and Human Rights course (PBL 5653F) a master’s level course for LLM and MPhil students.

Dr Khan was awarded a Doctoral degree in December 2017 from the University of Cape Town.

Thesis topic: In Chronic Exile: A critique of South Africa’s legal regime for refugees in Protracted situations.

Publications

Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014)

  • Khan F. ‘Chapter one – The Principle of Non-refoulement’ in Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014) pp. 3 – 20;
  • Khan F. ‘Chapter Two – The Alienage requirement’ in Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014) pp. 20 – 33;
  • Khan F. ‘Chapter Three – The well-founded fear of persecution’ in Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014) pp. 34 – 45;
  • Khan F. & de Jager J. ‘Chapter Four – Persecution’ in Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014) pp. 46 – 73;
  • Khan F., Dass D., Klaaren J. & Ramjathan-Keogh K. ‘Chapter Eleven – The Civil and Political Rights of refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa’ in Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014) pp. 203 – 219;
  • Khan F., Dass D. & Ramjathan-Keogh K. ‘Chapter Twelve – The socio-economic rights of refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa’ in Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014) pp. 220 – 233.

Khan, F (eds) 2018 Immigration Law in South Africa Juta Law ISBN 9781485101239.

  • Khan, F., Chapter One – Identifying migrants and the rights to which they are entitled’ in Khan, F (eds) 2018 Immigration Law in South Africa.
  • Khan, F., Louw, K & Willie, N. Chapter five – The securitization of Migration in Khan, F (eds) 2018 Immigration Law in South Africa.
  • Hurt, S and Khan F. ‘Chapter six – Temporary Residence’ in Khan, F (eds) 2018 Immigration Law in South Africa.
  • Khan, F. Chapter seven – Permanent residence in Khan, F (eds) 2018 Immigration Law in South Africa.
  • Khan, F. Chapter eight – Citizenship in South Africa in Khan, F (eds) 2018 Immigration Law in South Africa.
  1. Fatima Khan, Policy Shifts in the Asylum Process in South Africa Resulting in Hidden Refugees and Asylum Seekers African Human Mobility Review, Vol. 4, No. 2 (August 2018) pg.1205 -1225.
  2. Fatima Khan, Cecile Sackeyfio, What Promise Does the Global Compact on Refugees Hold for African Refugees? International Journal of Refugee Law, eez002, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eez002 Published 19th March 2019.
  3. Fatima Khan, Public Interest Litigation in South Africa, Jason Brickhill (Ed.)South African Law Journal 136, pp 199 - 203 (2019)
  4. Fatima Khan, In Chronic Exile: Rethinking the legal regime for refuges in protracted refugee situation. Stellenbosch Law Review Vol 30.No. 2 pp.186 – 211(2019)

Dr Khan has co-authored and edited two books

  • Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014)
  • Khan F. ‘Chapter one – The Principle of Non-refoulement’ in Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014) pp. 3 – 20;
  • Khan F. ‘Chapter Two – The Alienage requirement’ in Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014) pp. 20 – 33;
  • Khan F. ‘Chapter Three – The well-founded fear of persecution’ in Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014) pp. 34 – 45;
  • Khan F. & de Jager J. ‘Chapter Four – Persecution’ in Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014) pp. 46 – 73;
  • Khan F., Dass D., Klaaren J. & Ramjathan-Keogh K. ‘Chapter Eleven – The Civil and Political Rights of refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa’ in Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014) pp. 203 – 219;
  • Khan F., Dass D. & Ramjathan-Keogh K. ‘Chapter Twelve – The socio-economic rights of refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa’ in Khan F. & Schreier (eds.) Refugee Law in South Africa (2014) pp. 220 – 233.

Khan, F (eds) 2018 Immigration Law in South Africa Juta Law ISBN 9781485101239.

  • Khan, F., Chapter One – Identifying migrants and the rights to which they are entitled’ in Khan, F (eds) 2018 Immigration Law in South Africa.
  • Khan, F., Louw, K & Willie, N. Chapter five – The securitization of Migration in Khan, F (eds) 2018 Immigration Law in South Africa.
  • Hurt, S and Khan F. ‘Chapter six – Temporary Residence’ in Khan, F (eds) 2018 Immigration Law in South Africa.
  • Khan, F. Chapter seven – Permanent residence in Khan, F (eds) 2018 Immigration Law in South Africa.
  • Khan, F. Chapter eight – Citizenship in South Africa in Khan, F (eds) 2018 Immigration Law in South Africa.

Dr Khan established a working paper series to facilitate the rapid dissemination of material http://www.refugeerights.uct.ac.za/working-papers-series. She is a member of the Editorial Board of The Refugee Law Reader: Cases, Documents and Materials (7th edition), a comprehensive on-line model curriculum for the study of the complex and rapidly evolving field of international refugee law. 

She has also done collaborative research as a World-Wide University Network (WUN) member with the following universities and institutions; University of Auckland, University of Bergen, Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Leeds, Maastricht University, University of Sheffield, University of Sydney, University of Western Australia, Zhejiang University, Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland and University of Oxford.

Fatima has hosted several conferences; see below for a selection of papers and talks delivered:

  • 2005 - Cape Town - South African Human Rights Commission (host) - The right to seek asylum – Clarifying the presence of refugees in South Africa?
  • 2006 - Cape Town - Minister of Home Affairs(host) – Indaba for refugee women: Noting the vulnerability of refugee women in status determinations
  • 2007 - Geneva – UNHCR (host) Pre-Excom: Local Integration as the preferred solution for Refugees.
  • 2007 - Italy - Loreto Scalabrini (hosts) Patterns and policies of migration in South Africa: Changing patterns and the need for a comprehensive approach
  • 2008 - Parliament Cape Town. Opening address for the DHA Parliamentary Portfolio Committee (host) – Highlighting the Xenophobia faced by refugees in South Africa
  • 2009- Geneva - Africa (Experts meeting by invitation of the UN High Commissioner) Urban Refugee Policy – Commenting on the applicability of the UNHCR’s Urban policy for South Africa.
  • 2011 - Johannesburg - Foundation for Human Rights (host) – The rights of refugees in South Africa.
  • 2013 –Hosted a UNHCR Expert Roundtable on “serious disturbance of the public order.
  • 2014 - UCT and UNHCR Conference attended by SADC government officials. Lecture – Presented on ‘The extended reach of the principle of non-refoulment’
  • 2016 – presented at Maastricht University in the Netherlands on the issue of Hidden Migrants
  • 2018 – Hosted a UNHCR Conference on Statelessness