Refugee Studies Centre
Weekend Workshops in 2007
The following weekend workshops will be held in seminar rooms at the
Department of International Development, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB.
The workshop fees include a materials pack and a sandwich lunch and
refreshments on both days. A limited number of student places at a reduced
fee are available.
**Psychosocial Responses to Conflict and Forced Migration**
17th and 18th February 2007
Fee: £130
This two-day workshop examines mental health and psychosocial support in
Emergency and protracted refugee settings. It invites practitioners and
theorists to struggle with complex intercultural issues associated with
psychosocial programming. The workshop begins with a critical analysis of
contemporary psychological approaches to individual and community
psychological and social needs following armed conflict and displacement. It
examines the limits of Western psychological approaches to tasks such as
healing and reconciliation in the cultures and situations of complex
humanitarian emergencies. Pointing out how individualized, narrow
psychosocial programs miss important opportunities for building peace and
sustainable development, it suggests the need for integrated, holistic
approaches. Next, the workshop examines the value of indigenous psychological
resources such as local rituals and traditional practices in assisting
healing, community reconciliation, and processes of nonviolent conflict
resolution. Using exemplars from field programs it examines how to blend
Western and local approaches through processes of consultation, dialogue, and
collaborative problem-solving with local people. Attention will be paid to the
recently developed Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) guidelines on Mental
Health and Psychosocial support, its framework and implications.
Instructors: Dr. Michael Wessells is Senior Advisor on Child Protection
Specialist for Christian Children's Fund, Professor of Clinical Population and
Family Health at Columbia University, and Professor of Psychology at Randolph-
Macon College. Co-Chair of the Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) Task
Force on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, he conducts research on child
soldiers and post-conflict reconstruction for peace. Professor Wessells is an
advisor to UN agencies, governments and donors on child protection and has
helped develop post-conflict assistance programs in Africa, Asia and Eastern
Europe. Dr. Maryanne Loughry is the Co-convenor of the Psychosocial Working
Group, an international academic and practitioner group committed to the
development of knowledge and best practice in the field of psychosocial
interventions in complex emergencies.
**Palestinian Refugees and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights**
28th and 29th April 2007
Fee: £140
This two-day workshop places the Palestinian refugee case study within the
broader context of the international human rights regime. It examines, within
a human rights framework, the policies and practices of Middle Eastern states
as they impinge upon Palestinian refugees. Through a mix of lectures, working
group exercises and interactive sessions, participants engage actively and
critically with the contemporary debates in the human rights movement and
analyse the specific context of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East
(Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza and Israel) in light of the
debates. The workshop commences with the background of the Palestinian refugee
crisis, with special attention to the socio-political context and legal status
of Palestinian refugees in the region. This is followed by an examination of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights including its philosophical
underpinnings. The key themes, which have taken centre stage in the debate on
the crisis, are statelessness, right of return, repatriation, self-
determination, restitution compensation and protection, are critically
examined along with current discussions about the respective roles of UNRWA,
UNHCR and the UNCCP in the Palestinian refugee case.
Instructors: Dr Dawn Chatty, Reader in Anthropology and Forced Migration at
the University of Oxford, is Deputy Director of the Refugee Studies Centre.
She has conducted extensive research among Palestinians and other forced
migrants in the Middle East. Her book (edited with Gillian Lewando Hundt),
Children of Palestine: Experiencing Forced Migration in the Middle East is
published by Berghahn Press (2005). Dr Leila Hilal is currently a legal
adviser on refugees at the Palestinian Negotiations Support Unit in Ramallah.
She practiced as a litigation attorney for a class action law firm in New York
City and served as a law clerk with the South African Constitution Court. She
obtained her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the State University of New York at
Buffalo and Masters of Law (LL.M) from Harvard University. Her legal studies
focused on public international law, with emphasis on international human
rights law. Lena El-Malak is a doctoral student in Public International Law
at SOAS, University of London. She is currently writing a thesis on Israel's
State Responsibility in International Law: The Reparations Owed to Palestinian
Refugees. Lena has worked as a Durable Solutions Assistant at UNHCR in Amman
on cases involving Palestinian refugees and as an intern at UNHCR in Cairo.
She is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar.
**The Rights of Refugees Under International Law**
19th and 20th May 2007
Fee: £130
This weekend seminar focuses on the specific human rights to which all
refugees are entitled under the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967
Protocol. This is a matter of increasing importance, as governments in many
parts of the world are presently engaged in efforts to redefine refugees as
little more than the objects of political and humanitarian discretion. As a
matter of law, however, refugees are holders of a critical set of rights which
they are entitled to invoke in relation to state parties to the refugee
treaties. The goal of this short course is to equip policy-makers, advocates
and scholars with a solid understanding of the international refugee rights
regime. The first morning consists of an historical analysis of the evolution
of refugee rights and an introduction to the structure of entitlement under
the Refugee Convention. The balance of the course focuses on three key themes
selected for their contemporary relevance: the right of refugees to enjoy
freedom of internal movement, to work, and to receive public assistance. The
teaching methodology combines overview lectures with a series of intensive
workshops in which participants co-operate to examine the application of legal
rules in the context of specific case studies. To ensure an intimate and
involving atmosphere, a maximum of 50 participants will be enrolled in the
course.
Instructor: Professor James C Hathaway is James E. And Sarah A. Degan
Professor of Law and Director of the Program in Refugee and Asylum Law at the
University of Michigan Law School, and Senior Visiting Research Associate at
the Department of International Development (QEH), University of Oxford. He
is the author of The Rights of Refugees Under International Law (2005) and The
Law of Refugee Status (1991), and editor of Reconceiving International Refugee
Law (1997). He has provided training on refugee law to academic, non-
governmental and official audiences in all parts of the world, and is a member
of the editorial advisory boards of The Journal of Refugee Studies and the
Immigration and Nationality Law Reports.
This course is accredited by the Law Society and Bar Council
Further information: website http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk or Dominique Attala,
Refugee Studies Centre, Department of International Development, Tel: +44-(0)
1865 270272; Fax: +44-(0)1865 270721; EMail: [log in to unmask]
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