What? This is a call for proposals for an organization to host a follow up conference to the International Refugee Rights Conference held in Toronto, Canada, June 2006, with a participatory agenda geared towards identifying and committing to follow up action. The structure of the conference is a mixture of plenary sessions and parallel thematic workshops, over three days.
The primary goal of the conference will be to consolidate the international network that grew out of the June 2006 conference as a network of NGOs committed to refugee rights. A session will be dedicated to concrete discussions and decision-making on the structure and functioning of the network.
For information about the June 2006 conference, please go to http://www.ccrweb.ca/en/confreport.html.
Who? Primary target for participants is refugees and representatives of NGOs working for refugee rights. The conference would also be open to others, including academics, students, journalists; UNHCR; international and inter-governmental organizations; and government officials. However, some sessions will be closed to government to allow strategizing.
Estimated participation numbers: 300 – 500 persons. There should be strong representation from the hosting region, but not so many that the representatives from outside the region are overwhelmed.
Efforts will be made to ensure strong participation of refugee advocates from global south countries/regions and/or where there is not already a strong refugee advocacy network.
When? 2009.
Where? Somewhere other than the North American region (since the 2006 conference already took place in Canada). Somewhere reasonably accessible – flights frequent and not too exorbitant, visa issues not too forbidding.
The hosting organization will be responsible for:
- Logistics of the conference (including identifying and negotiating with site, managing accommodation, reproducing documents for participants, providing logistical support)
- Promotion of the conference, particularly in the host region.
- Working with the Steering Committee on fundraising for the conference (especially on accessing local or regional funding sources)
- Working with the Steering Committee on the program for the conference (especially to identify the main theme of the conference, the different themes for plenaries and parallel workshops, as well as to identify the resource persons, particularly from the host region)
Criteria on which proposals will be evaluated:
- Evidence of capacity to carry out the tasks.
- Evidence of breadth of local/regional support for hosting the conference
- Degree to which it will further the overall goal of consolidating the international network
- Additional advantages that the proposal can offer such as: link to other international or regional conference.
- Accessibility of location
- Costs to participants
- Overall feasibility plan.
Submissions should:
- Be no more than 8 pages.
- Be written in English, French or Spanish.
- Explain your motivation for hosting the conference.
- Give details of the proposed facilities for hosting the conference (including details about meeting rooms, accommodation for participants, costs of facilities).
- Identify clearly which organization(s) would assume lead responsibility and which organizations have indicated a willingness to offer support.
- Provide information that allows us to evaluate the proposal against the criteria listed above.
- Indicate what funding you think your organization could access from local or regional sources.
- Indicate what dates you would propose hosting the conference (and whether the dates are flexible).
- Indicate what challenges you see in hosting the conference in your location and how you propose they be overcome.
For questions relating to this call, please contact Janet Dench, CCR, at ccr@web.ca
Canadian Council for Refugees
www.ccrweb.ca
