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Dr Patricia Hynes, Principal Lecturer from the University’s School of Applied Social Studies, joined the ‘Refugee Debate’ Panel about refugees and the refugee protection system at the Speakers Forum of Glastonbury 2017.

The panel included BAFTA winner Hassan Akkad, Tamzin Wood from Refugee Aid and Tom Daly from Bristol Refugee Rights.

In her talk, she highlighted the plight of the 65 million people who have been forcibly displaced worldwide, and how what is happening in Europe has been the situation in other countries for decades.

“Some 84% of refugees are hosted in low-income or middle-income countries, not in the richer countries of the world. This goes against common perceptions that people have, including within the UK, of who hosts the world’s refugees. What we now need is a real and engaging debate on refugees and the need to improve the current refugee protection system based on human rights and dignity,” said Dr Hynes.

Speaking after the event, Dr Hynes said: “Speaking at Glastonbury has been a highlight of my career to date. It was just so uplifting to be able to listen and speak to such inspiring people. This has been my best academic gig to date.”

Other speakers on the day included Michael Eaves, the founder of the Glastonbury Festival, Sir Tim Smith, CEO of the Eden Project, Ruby Wax, John McDonnell and Gillian Anderson of X-Files fame who outlined a new manifesto for women everywhere.

Earlier in the week, Dr Hynes also spoke at the ‘Human Rights: Culture and Critique’ event, hosted by the Social Sciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. The conference was held to build bridges between the knowledge domains of the social sciences and those of human rights.

She gave a talk on the role of sociology to protect the human rights of refugees, and argued that refugees often fall between the gaps of national rights based protection.

“Sociology is all about investigating inequalities, power, conflict and social divisions. These are all very useful topics when thinking about refugees. However, so often we only think about what happens in our own countries, or how our own nation responds,” said Dr Hynes.

“When thinking about refugees, we need to think across border and beyond our own conceptualisations. There is a vast gulf between human rights ideals and the lived experience of those who endure and survive human rights violations. For refugees, this gulf can be even bigger and they regularly have basic human rights denied.”