Seminar on IDPs, refugees', and national minorities, Tbilisi, May 6-12 2001
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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 05:39:05 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Seminar on IDPs, refugees', and national minorities, Tbilisi, May 6-12 2001
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Inga Beridze <[email protected]>
Seminar on IDPs, refugees', and national minorities, Tbilisi,
May 6-12 2001
Seminar for NGOs and specialists from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia
working with IDPs, refugees and national minorities
"The Human Rights Underpinnings of IDPs, Refugees, and National
Minorities"
Georgia, 6-12 May 2001
Organised by the Netherlands Helsinki Committee (NHC),
and
the International Association of Lawyers of the Caucasus (IALC)
Financed by the Constitutional and Legal Policy Institute (COLPI) in
Budapest
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
The Netherlands Helsinki Committee (NHC) is happy to announce that it
will hold a seminar on IDPs, refugees', and national minorities'
issues for organisations and specialists from Azerbaijan, Armenia and
Georgia. The seminar constitutes the sixth seminar in Georgia,
(co-)organised by the Netherlands Helsinki Committee and sponsored by
COLPI on human rights, and the second one on which we cooperate with
IALC.
The five-days seminar will be held in Georgia. The location will be
made known in a later phase. All travel and accommodation costs
related to the seminar will be covered by the organisers, and travel
from Baku and Yerevan to Georgia will be arranged for.
The seminar will concentrate on the plight of IDPs and refugees, as
well as on the situation of national minorities from the perspective
of international human rights instruments and legislation. The seminar
will provide you with the tools to place specific problems related to
IDPs, refugees, and national minorities in a framework of
international human rights protection and promotion. We will acquaint
you with the main international instruments, and we will examine with
you cases related to IDPs, refugees and national minorities from all
over the world, taken from the practice of international organisations
as UNHCR. In addition, international experts will work with you on
case studies drawn from your own practice in the countries of the
South-Caucasus. The evenings will be dedicated to more informal
discussions among the participants from the three countries. During
the seminar, the main emphasis will be put on the relevant
international legislation. International and local renowned experts
will be invited to present lectures and give workshops.
The draft agenda of the seminar:
day 1
- The history of human rights
- The main international instruments in the protection of human
rights: Universal Declaration of Human Rights; International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights; International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights; European Convention of Human Rights; the
mechanisms of the OSCE
- Terminology, and specific basic rights closely related to refugees,
IDPs, and national minorities: the right to elect and be elected; the
right to speak one's own language; the right of freedom of religion
and association; the right to a family life; the right of
self-determination.
day 2
- Case-law and procedures under International legal instruments for
the protection of refugees' and migrants' rights: 1951 Convention and
Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees; 1954 Convention relating
to the Status of Stateless Persons; 1961 Convention on the Reduction
of Statelessness; Treaty on Support to Refugees and Forced Migrants
(CIS Treaty); UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
- The practice of the UNHCR and other international bodies for the
protection of human rights: terminology, methodology, and practice.
day 3
- Case-law and procedures under international instruments relating to
national minorities: Framework Convention on National Minorities;
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide;
OSCE mechanisms; art. 14 ECHR; Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages; art. 27 ICCPR
- The practice of international bodies for the protection of national
minorities' rights.
day 4
- Workshop addressing the procedures, mechanisms, and case law of
relevant UN bodies as well as the ECHR (last one to be considered).
day 5
- Continuation of workshop
- The human rights aspects of repatriation, resettlement, and
integration of refugees and IDPs, and integration of national
minorities
- Strategies of NGOs in the protection of human rights of refugees,
IDPs, and national minorities.
Evening discussions:
* benchmarks in the national legislations of Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia in the implementation of minimum international human rights
standards concerning refugees, IDPs, and national minorities;
* practical work of human rights organisations and lawyers in Armenia,
Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
* or other topics of interest to the participants.
*****
We would like to invite organisations and specialists in the field of
IDPs, refugees and national minorities to apply for participation in
the seminar. Applicants do not need to be lawyer or jurist, but must
have a profound interest in the legal aspects of human rights
protection of IDPs, refugees and national minorities, and be keen to
use the available international (human rights) instruments in their
work with IDPs, refugees and national minorities. Lastly, we will ask
from the successful applicants to provide us before the seminar with a
description of relevant case from the own practice, which will be used
during the seminar.
The working language will be Russian, with, if need be, interpretation
into and from English.
If you are interested in participation in the seminar, please be so
kind and fill in the application form below. The form should be handed
in to your local IALC office (for addresses see below) before 9 March
2001. We cannot accept hand-written or incomplete forms, or forms
which are handed in after the deadline. In the week of 26 March we
will let you know whether your application has been successful.
APPLICATION FORM
1. Name
2. Year of birth
3. Education
4. Telephone, fax, address and email for communication with IALC.
5. In which organisation(s) do you work, and since how long? Which are
your responsibilities?
6. Please provide contact data of the organisation(s) where you work
7. Which is your previous relevant professional experience?
8. Do you do any voluntary work with IDPs, refugees, and/or national
minorities?
9. In which seminars concerning IDPs, refugees, and/or national
minorities have you participated, and when?
10. In which field are you most interested: IDPs, refugees, or
national minorities?
11. How do you assess your knowledge of your national legislation in
the field of IDPs, refugees, and/or national minorities?
(bad/reasonable/good/very good)
12. How do you assess your knowledge of UN and other international
instrument in the field of your interest (see question 10.)?
(bad/reasonable/good/very good)
13. How do you use UN and other international human right instruments
in your daily work?
14. How is your command of the Russian language?
(bad/reasonable/good/very good)
15. Which are in your view the most acute problems in the field of
IDPs, refugees, and/or national minorities in your country? (Please,
not more than 15 lines).
16. Why would you like to participate in the seminar?
17. How do you plan to use in your work the knowledge acquired during
the seminar?
18. Do you agree to take part in all seminar sessions?
19. Do you agree to provide us with a brief description of a relevant
case related to IDPs, refugees, or national minorities, before the
seminar?
We thank you very much for your interest in our seminar, and look
forward to receiving your application form.
On behalf of the organisors,
Yours Sincerely,
Barbara Henkes
Project Coordinator, NHC
and
Inga Beridze
President, IALC
International Association of Lawyers of the Caucasus
Georgia
144, Cereteli Ave.
Tbilisi, 380019
Mobile: +(995-99) 585046
Phone/ Fax:: +(995 32) 250881
Fax poste restante +(995 32) 001153
E-mail: [email protected]
Contact: Inga Beridze
International Association of Lawyers of the Caucasus
Azerbaijan Republic
90/2 Bashir Safaroglu St
Baku, 370009
Mobile: (+994-50) 336-60-00
Tel/Fax: (994-12) 93-91-28
E-mail: [email protected]
Contact: Imran Valiyev
International Association of Lawyers of the Caucasus
Armenian Republic
1 Jrashat St.,
Yerevan 375009
Tel: (3742) 561-560, 587-864, 561-505
Fax: (3742) 561-505
E-mail: [email protected]
Contact: Levon Nersisyan
Barbara Henkes
Project Coordinator
Netherlands Helsinki Committee
Tel/fax: +359 2 9867709, 9885062, 9819791
E-mail: [email protected]
Office of Netherlands Helsinki Committee
Post box 93132
2509 AC The Hague, Netherlands
E-mail: [email protected]
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