Alexander Aleinikoff, who serves as the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, will be the featured speaker at a discussion at the Woodrow Wilson School on Thursday, March 14, 2013, at 4:30 p.m., Bowl 016, Robertson Hall. The event is co-sponsored by the Bobst Center for Peace and Justice, the Woodrow Wilson School, the Niehaus Center for Global Governance, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the University Center for Human Values and the Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship Programme.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country.

Aleinikoff has served as deputy high commissioner since February 2010.  He previously served as dean of the Georgetown University Law Center and as executive vice president for Law Center Affairs.  An expert in refugee, immigration and citizenship law and policy, he was a professor of law at Georgetown from 1997 to 2010 when he took a leave of absence to serve as deputy high commissioner.  Previously Aleinikoff served as general counsel for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in 1994-95, participating in major decisions that included reform of the U.S. asylum process.  From 1995 to 1997, he was executive associate commissioner for programs at the INS, overseeing program development.

The event will be archived online for later viewing on the Woodrow Wilson School’s web media site – http://wws.princeton.edu/webmedia.