This year’s special theme – ‘Mass Influx? Law, Policy and Large-Scale Movements of Refugees and Migrants’ - reflects a need to re-examine complex issues surrounding large-scale sudden movements of persons across borders, as we build towards the Global Compacts in 2018. With the current political focus on such large-scale movements, there is renewed interest in better understanding and developing humanitarian responses. Even if key normative and legal protection gaps in this area have been evident for some time, little has changed on the ground for refugees, migrants and IDPs. The September 2016 adoption of the UN New York Declaration provides a timely opportunity to reflect on the ideas and proposals expressed therein and to feed into the development of Global Compacts in 2018. Alongside presentations from keynote speakers, several panel sessions will be devoted to this theme. We are pleased to announce our keynote speakers for the conference: - Volker Turk, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, UNHCR - François Crépeau, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrants - Alexander Betts, Director, Refugee Studies Centre - Loren Landau, African Centre for Migration and Society - Alexandra Bilak, Director, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre