NGO Working Group on Conflict Management meeting
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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 10:49:09 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: NGO Working Group on Conflict Management meeting
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Andre Kamenshikov <[email protected]>
NGO Working Group on Conflict Management meeting
Letter of Invitation
The Centre for Conflict Management (Kazakhstan) and Nonviolence
International - Newly Independent States (Russia) are pleased to
invite you to take part in the meeting of the NGO Working Group
Conflict Management and Prevention of the CIS Conference on Migration,
supported by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The
meeting will take place in Moscow on November 27 - 28, 1998.
The purpose of this meeting is to allow the representatives of CIS
NGOs and International humanitarian organizations and agencies who
work with conflict issues to meet with each other and to discuss the
existing and potential conflicts in the CIS which may cause new flows
of forced migrants and steps to be taken in order to avoid such
negative developments. During the Meeting a Program of Action for 1999
of this Working Group is planned to be elaborated. Participants are
expected to work out their own suggestions and plans and to send them
for organizers� consideration before the Meeting.
The participants will arrive in Moscow on November 26 and leave on
November 29. They will be reimbursed for reasonable travel expenses
upon arrival in Moscow (economy class airfare or train). However, the
participants are expected to make their own travel arrangements. The
participants will be lodged in the hotel "Centralnyi dom turista". The
meeting will take place there as well.
Preliminary PROGRAMME OF THE MEETING
November 27, 1998
9.00 - Welcome and acknowledgements. Introductions.
9.30 - Description of the Working Group on Conflict Management and
Prevention initiative, its goals and objectives
10.30 - Coffee break
11.00 - Participant�s presentations
13.00 - Lunch
14.00 - Continuation of participant�s presentations
16.00 - Coffee break
16.30 - Creating a list of potential "trouble spots" and ranking them
according to their perceived priority. Defining the number and
discussion topics for the small group�s discussions.
November 28, 1998
9.30 - Work in small groups
11.30 - Coffee break
12.00 - Groups presentations and discussion
13.30 - Lunch
15.00 - Defining future activities of the Working Group:
- Setting up a management structure (forming a coordinating council,
etc.);
- Planning future activities (issue-centered meetings, etc.);
- Defining a mechanism for information exchange.
18.30 - Farewell
Changes may be introduced into the program.
>
We would like to ask the participants to think over the following
issues for discussion:
1. What is seen as the most serious and potentially dangerous
situations, which might lead to conflicts and migration flows:
- in the Newly Independent States (former USSR);
- in the region of the participant
2. What activities may be carried out in order to prevent such
negative developments:
- by the authorities;
- by international organisations;
- by local NGOs
3. Ways of information exchange (including creation of a network).
4. What topics must be discussed in the regional-centered and
issue-centered working groups.
For more information please contact:
Centre for Conflict Management, Kazakhstan
Dr. Elena Sadovskaya, president
Ms. Lada Zimina, project coordinator
tel./fax. (3272) 47-94-49
E-mail: [email protected]
Address: apt. 23, 57 �V� Timiryazev str., Alma-Ata 480090, Kazakhstan
Nonviolence International - Newly Independent States
Mr. Andre Kamenshikov, project co-ordinator, tel. (095) 351-4855,
Ms. Plahotnikova Julia, project assistant, tel. (095) 932-2957
Mr. Michael Sharaev, project assistant, tel. (812) 238-3930
fax (095) 336-5323
E-mail: [email protected]
GENERAL INFORMATION
ABOUT THE BACKGROUND OF THE MEETING AND ITS OBJECTIVES
I. Program of Action of the UNCHR Conference
The UNCHR Conference on Refugees, Displaced persons, and other forms
of involuntary displacement in the countries of the CIS was held in
Geneva in May 1996. It worked out a Program of Action in the framework
of the follow-up to the CIS Conference. The governments of the CIS
countries and other states, international organisations including the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International
Organisation for Migration (IOM), as well as non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) emphasized a unified strategy for dealing with
issues connected with the forced migration of millions of people that
followed the disintegration of the Soviet Union. This strategy was
formulated in the Programme of Action adopted by the Conference. Today
the term �CIS Conference on Refugees Process� is often used not just
as a referral to the conference that took place in May 1996, but also
to a series of combined activities carried out within the framework of
implementing Conference decisions.
It was decided at the Conference that the Conference Steering Group
should hold annual meetings to evaluate progress in the implementation
of the Program of Action and to discuss further plans. As of now,
three meetings of the Steering Group have taken place, the most recent
one on June 18-19, 1998, in Geneva.
During the work on implementation of the Program of Action, a constant
expansion of the role of NGOs in CIS countries emerged as a general
trend.
The number of NGOs accredited by the Conference and its Steering Group
meetings also increased. This prompted UNHCR to work on a regional
strategy to collaborate with NGOs and render them support.
One of the most important steps taken toward developing this
collaboration between NGOs, and also between NGOs from the CIS
countries and international organisations, was the creation within the
framework of the Conference of a number of NGO Working Groups:
Working Group on Integration/Repatriation/Migration (leading agency -
Counterpart International and Counterpart Alliance for Partnership)
Working Group on Humanitarian/Emergency Assistance (leading agency -
Norwegian Refugee Council)
Working Group on Refugee Law and Protection (leading agency - Finnish
Refugee Advice Centre, Danish Refugee Council, European Council on
Refugees and Exiles)
Working Group on Institutional Framework and NGO Legislation (leading
agency - Open Society Institute/Forced Migration Projects, OSI/Forced
Migration Projects in Russia)
Working Group on Conflict Management and Prevention (leading agency -
Centre for Conflict Management, Kazakhstan)
II. Working Group on Conflict Management and Prevention: goals and
objectives
The main goal of the Working Group on Conflict Management and
Prevention is to provide a clear picture of possible conflicts and
other negative developments that may cause future migration flows and
discuss specific activities which may help avoid such tragic events.
These activities may include specific proposals about using the
potential of local NGOs in the areas of tension.
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