Summer course in France brings refugee protection to life
Every June, UNHCR and the International Institute for Human Rights organise a two-week summer course on refugee law in Strasbourg, France. The course provides French-speakers with a rare opportunity to deepen their knowledge of refugee protection through practical exercises with participants from around the world.
STRASBOURG, France, July 12 (UNHCR) - Karina Jasmine sobs quietly while telling the story of how she had to flee after receiving death threats because she refused to subject her daughter to genital mutilation in Kilina, her home country. Her story, poignantly told, is not different from thousands of other stories of persecution told by refugees every day around the world. Karina, however, is a fictitious character played by a UNHCR staff member as part of a simulated scenario, which forms part of the training received by participants at UNHCR's Refugee Law summer course in Strasbourg, France.
Bringing together human rights experts, lawyers, teachers, students and professionals from a variety of organisations, the refugee course has been taking place every summer for the last 13 years. It is one of the few courses on international refugee protection available in French and draws a large number of French-speaking participants, from Canada to Kazakhstan, with most of this year's participants coming Africa. After a rigorous selection process, fifty candidates were chosen from over 400 applicants from 33 countries.
The two-week course is organised jointly by UNHCR and the International Institute for Human Rights (IIDH), based in Strasbourg. It includes lectures on refugee law, refugee status determination, durable solutions, refugees in armed conflict and asylum and migration policies around the world.
Practical training includes a simulation exercise where participants have to solve a legal case involving a fictitious individual. Using different criteria for determining refugee status, the participants are asked to judge whether the individual would have been granted refugee status had the situation been real.
"The simulations bring refugee cases to life," says UNHCR's Fadma Moumtaz, who has been playing the role of a refugee woman since the exercise was introduced to the course seven years ago. "They can have a real person in front of them to whom they can ask questions as if they were in a real court of law. Every year participants have different questions and reactions."
The main objective of the course is to improve knowledge of international refugee law among professionals working in the field by teaching them how to identify and respond to individuals in need of international protection. After an examination, successful participants receive a certificate.
"We are very grateful to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for funding this course, which is one of the very few of its kind," said Veronique Robert, Senior Protection Officer at the UNHCR Office in Paris. "Besides providing participants with the opportunity to increase their knowledge of refugee issues and international refugee principles, it is a great opportunity for them to meet with other experts coming from different countries and share experiences and best practices in the field of refugee protection".
This year the Refugee Law course took place from 14 to 25 June. The selection process for next year's participants is due to begin in April 2011.
By Alexandra Cwikiel and William Spindler in Paris, France
Related news and stories
UNHCR issues recommendations to the 2022 French and Czech Presidencies of the Council of the EU
UNHCR and Council of Europe discuss statelessness, urge States to uphold the right to a nationality in Europe
Refugees pitch in at France's famed Bordeaux vineyards
Refugees help French wine makers fill labour shortages
'You could see the happiness on their faces'
Afghan refugee makes masks for entire French village
Your search for « course » matched 5429 results. Only the first 1,000 results are displayed. Displaying page 9 of 112 pages.
-
A New Beginning: Refugee Integration in Europe
Sep 2013 ... and feedback during the course of this research and who are committed to refugee integration. ... Register (Ausländerzentralregister), employment statistics, and integration course statistics. ...... -
Evaluation of the Protection Learning Programme
1 May 2005 ... ... It requires the fewest resources to implement. Scenario B describes the division of the current PLP into an induction course and a protection course. This scenario has the potential to address all of ...... -
72nd meeting of the Standing Committee - Report on UNHCR's global strategic priorities
21 Jun 2018 ... This report outlines progress made in the course of 2017 in pursuit of UNHCR’s global ... activity, i.e. a substantive blended learning programme or a stand-alone e- learning course. ...... -
Action for the Rights of Children (ARC): Tools - Situation Analysis
1 Feb 1999 ... ... for field-based workers, is to get course participants to work on their own current work situation: for example, by giving participants a pre-course task which they work on during the course, ...... -
Refugees Magazine Issue 144: Where Are They Now? The Hungarian Refugees, 50 Years On
1 Oct 2006 ... and long-lasting ramifications for the future course of the Cold War and the relationship between ... But the people it marked most of all were, of course, the Hungarians themselves – both those who ...... -
UNHCR Global Report 1999 - The Middle East Regional Overview
1 Jun 2000 ... Page 192 MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS During the course of the year, continuing political instability in the ... 5,495 persons were resettled in third countries from the Middle East during the course of the year. ...... -
Handbook for the Protection of Internally Displaced Persons
Mar 2010 ... The effectiveness of any tool is, of course, judged by the frequency of its use by practitioners in ... The Handbook was then field-tested in the course of 2008 in over fifteen countries, involving the ...... -
Essential Care For Every Baby - Provider Guide (ENG)
23 Oct 2019 ... Some will use it as preparation for and during the initial Essential Care for Every Baby training course. Others will not use it until after the completion of the course. Then, it will guide ...... -
Engaging with Refugees and Partners
... ... An eLearning course for partners on Investigating Allegations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse was developed to better respond to all incidents of SEA and boost partner investigative capacity. This ......