Australia's refugee policy and current issues and research on asylum seekers will be examined by academics and human rights organisations at a national conference in Sydney on Friday 20 October.

The Integrity of our Shores: Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Australia conference aims to forge better links between academics and refugee and human rights practitioners, to make advocacy a more central theme to research in this area.

Papers will be presented on topics including media representation of refugees, Government policy and practice, human rights, refugee detention, and gender and refugees.

In the spirit of collaboration the conference is being co-sponsored by Charles Sturt University's Centre for Cultural Research Into Risk, Refugee Council of Australia, Asylum Seekers International, Amnesty International and the National Council of Churches.

Conference co-convenor and Charles Sturt University human rights researcher Dr Sharon Pickering is currently working on an Australian Research Council funded project into women's activism and human rights on the Thai-Burma border.

"This project looks to document the experiences of women's social activism, their definitions and understandings of human rights and explore the quality, nature and access to human rights information used by women," Dr Pickering said.

As part of its objective to explore relationships between cultures, government policy, media and private institutions, CSU's Centre for Cultural Research into Risk is also supporting research into asylum seekers in Australia.

ABC journalist Peter Mares, who is currently writing a book on asylum seekers, will give an opening address.

Human rights research at Charles Sturt University is set to develop into the future, with the offering of Australia's first Graduate Certificate in Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Forced Migration in 2001.