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Launching an
international network
In June 2006, the Canadian Council for Refugees hosted a very
successful International Refugee Rights Conference in Toronto,
Canada. The conference was attended by close to 500 participants,
with representation from over 30 countries in all regions of the
world. Most participants were NGO representatives.
The goal of the conference was to enhance the effectiveness of NGOs in
promoting the human rights of refugees by promoting cross-border
networking.
At the concluding plenary participants warmly endorsed the major
recommendation to establish an international network on refugee rights.
The report of the conference is available at http://www.ccrweb.ca/intconf.htm.
Developing
an international network
At the June 2006 conference, a steering committee was struck to oversee
the development of a global network (informal or formal) on refugee
rights. Two key tasks for the steering committee are to:
establish electronic communication between conference participants and
other NGOs interested in networking on refugee rights and to plan for
another conference to be held in 2008 in a different region of the
world.
Since June, terms of reference for the steering committee have
been developed.
The goals of the network are:
- To advance the rights of refugees by facilitating
effective ongoing cross-border networking among NGOs committed to
refugee rights.
- To support in particular grassroots NGOs working in
situations where they have limited opportunities for networking on
refugee rights.
- To strengthen the global voice advocating for refugee
rights.
Getting
involved in the international network
NGOs committed to refugee rights are invited to join the emerging
international network. To indicate your interest and receive more
information as it becomes available, send an email to ccr5@web.ca with International Network
in the subject line.
The Steering Committee could also benefit from additional
members. If you and your organization are able to commit some
time and energy to guiding the development of the international
network, we would like to hear from you. Please send an email to ccr@web.ca
Flyer announcing the international
network 
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