FORUM-ASIA is organising a Regional Training and Consultation Workshop (RTCW) on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from 13 – 16 July 2006 in Sri Lanka.
Around 30 participants from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will gather to share their experiences and expertise in facing different types of internal displacements in their own countries.FORUM-ASIA is organising a Regional Training and Consultation Workshop (RTCW) on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from 13 – 16 July 2006 in Sri Lanka.
Around 30 participants from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will gather to share their experiences and expertise in facing different types of internal displacements in their own countries.
At the workshop, the groups will discuss on how to enhance their competencies on effective promotion and protection of IDPs rights; to strengthen regional networks and cooperation among members of the sector.
Community Trust Fund (CTF), one of FORUM-ASIA’s member organisations in Sri Lanka will host the event together with Law and Society Trust (LST) and Information and Monitoring (INFORM), other FORUM-ASIA members in Sri Lanka.
To facilitate the preparation of the workshop, FORUM-ASIA’s IDPs specialist and consultant Mohamed Asan Saleem (Saleem) visited CTF from 8 – 9 April 2006.
On 8 April, Saleem conducted a one-day (preparatory) workshop for ten camp leaders and several CTF staff on:
- Who are IDPs?
- What are the Guiding Principles on IDPs?
- Protection and durable solution for IDPs
- Current situation of Puttalam – an area, where more than 80 percent of the forcibly evicted northern Muslim IDPs live for the last 15 years.
During the meeting, participants were informed about the RTCW, where a Task Force was formed to prepare for the event.
The meeting was followed by a consultation on 9 April with Musthafa Nihmath (Head of CTF), S.H. Firdous (Managing Trustee Programme) and M.S. Rafeek (Managing Trustee Human Resources), who were all briefed about the RTWC.
Saleem also visited LST and IDP Unit of the Sri Lanka National Human Rights Commission on 10 April 2006. Damaris Wickremesekera of LST welcomed the idea and proposed to have a discussion on the matter among three other members in Sri Lanka in the coming month.
Senaka Dissanayake, Programme Manager, IDP Unit of the Sri Lanka National Human Rights Commission clarified NHRC’s activities for IDPs, welcoming the idea of bringing them together for the first time in Sri Lanka, while expressing his willingness to participate in the event.
FORUM-ASIA will soon appoint a Task Force on IDPs within the Secretariat to facilitate the process of RTCW. IDPs is a project under FORUM-ASIA’s Anti-Discrimination Against Minorities and Vulnerables (DMV) thematic programme.
Why are we having the workshop?
Internally displaced are among the most vulnerable populations, desperately in need of protection and assistance. Many IDPs remain exposed to violence and other human rights violations during their displacement. Often they have no or only very limited access to food, employment, education and health care.
Large numbers of IDPs are caught in desperate situations amidst fighting or in remote and inaccessible areas cut-off from international assistance. Others have been forced to live away from their homes for many years, or even decades, because the conflicts that caused their displacement remained unresolved.
Governments who have the primary responsibility for the security and well-being of all displaced people on their territory are often unable or unwilling to live up to this obligation. On the other hand the IDPs Network at national and regional levels remains weak. Majority of the displaced population know nothing or very little about their rights, obligation of governments and other actors and the existing international mechanisms for their protection.
