Ending the Displacement Cycle: Finding Durable Solutions through Return and Resettlement
Date: 28–29 January 2011
Venue: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Organised by: Regional Centre for Strategic Studies with the support of the Ford Foundation and the Consortium of Non-Traditional Security Studies in Asia (NTS-Asia).
The Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), with the support of the Ford Foundation, organised a Consortium of Non-Traditional Security Studies in Asia (NTS-Asia) sub-regional workshop titled ‘Ending the Displacement Cycle: Finding Durable Solutions through Return and Resettlement’ in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 28–29 January 2011. The objective of this workshop was to look at the policies implemented by South and Southeast Asian states pertaining to the return and resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who were displaced due to internal conflicts, natural disasters and development projects. The RSIS Centre for NTS Studies is the Secretariat of NTS-Asia and the workshop was one of two NTS-Asia sub-regional workshops to be held this year.
Prof. Amal Jayawardane, Executive Director of RCSS, delivered the welcome address during the opening session and elaborated on the importance of looking at internal displacement, especially in South and Southeast Asia, which are two regions rife with internal conflicts, natural disasters and development issues. Speaking on behalf of NTS-Asia, Dr Alistair Cook, Post-Doctoral Fellow and Co-Lead of the Internal and Cross-Border Conflict Programme at the RSIS Centre for NTS Studies (Secretariat of NTS-Asia), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, explained the role and function of the Consortium and its work on non-traditional security (NTS) issues in Asia.
The sessions focused on several aspects of the IDP issue. The opening session gave an overview on the IDP issue and looked at the various international and regional responses to the problem of displacement. The Framework of Durable Solutions for IDPs which was adopted by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Working Group (2007 and 2009) was touched upon, and the dilemmas underlining these new initiatives and their implications on the region were also discussed. The next few sessions focused on IDPs in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Myanmar respectively.
The workshop was attended by members of civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations, as well as academics and government officials who have been working on issues pertaining to internal displacement. All the papers were discussed extensively during the Q&A sessions and the paper writers are in the process of revising their papers for a book that will be published by RCSS shortly.
Posted on: 28/1/2011 8:00:00 AM |
Topic: Internal and Cross-Border Conflict
