Internal Displacement and Solutions Conference
Held on 14-15 March 2024, this online conference marked the culmination of five years of increasing international engagement with the pressing challenge of ‘solutions’ to internal displacement. It provided a forum for researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and students from all disciplines to come together to present, debate and reflect on ‘solutions’ to internal displacement and their future.
Day 1 - 14 March 2024
Plenary - Welcome by Professor David Cantor and Keynote by Professor Elizabeth Ferris
Welcome: Professor David Cantor, Director of the Internal Displacement Research Programme / Refugee Law Initiative
Keynote: “Academic Research on IDPs: Trends, Gaps, Possibilities”, Professor Elizabeth Ferris, Director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University, USA
Session 1A - Not All IDPs Are The Same: Working towards Different ‘Solutions’ for Different IDPs (THEMATIC)
Moderator: Dr Lidia Kuzemska (Forum Transregionale Studien, Germany)
Panellists: Dr Nyi Nyi Kyaw (Chiang Mai University, Thailand), Dr Abebaw Minaye (Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia), Dr Fouad M Fouad (American University of Beirut, Lebanon), Dr Daryna Dvornichenko (University of Oxford, UK)
Session 2B - Internal Displacement in Buddhist Theory and Practice (THEMATIC)
Moderator: Dr Bríd Ní Ghráinne (Maynooth University, Ireland)
Panellists: Dr Christina Kilby (James Madison University, USA), Professor Mahinda Deegalle (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), Professor Diane Denis (Kathmandu University, Nepal)
Session 3A - A Question with Many Answers: How to Measure Progress Towards Durable Solutions to Internal Displacement? (THEMATIC)
Moderator: Natalia Baal (EGRISS Secretariat, Denmark)
Discussant: Mona Folkesson (Office of the Special Advisor on Solutions)
Panellists: Margharita Lundkvist-Houndoumadi (Joint IDP Profiling Service, Switzerland), Catherine Osborn (UN Development Programme, Switzerland), Nathalia Romero Figueroa (Unit for the Comprehensive Attention & Reparations of Victims, Colombia), Felix Schmieding (World Bank-UNHCR Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement, Denmark)
Session 3B - Conceptualising Solutions – New Academic Perspectives (THEMATIC)
Moderator: Martina Caterina (UNHCR, Switzerland)
Panellists: Professor Megan Bradley (McGill University, Canada), Erica Bower (Stanford University, USA), Dr Benjamin Etzold (Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies, Germany), Dr Carolien Jacobs (Leiden Law School, Netherlands) and Melissa Weihmayer (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK)
Day 2 - 15 March 2024
Plenary - Welcome Back
Rekha Menon, Office of the UNSG Special Advisor on Solutions
Session 4A - Accountability for Arbitrary Displacement (THEMATIC)
Moderator: Professor David Cantor (Internal Displacement Research Programme, UK)
Panellists: Mareen Brosinsky (University of Wollongong, Australia), Dr Deborah Casalin (University of Antwerp, Belgium), Janet Jebichii Sego (University of Antwerp, Belgium), Professor Phil Orchard (University of Wollongong, Australia)
Session 4B - Understanding Solutions Dynamics in Communities (THEMATIC)
Moderator: Dr Ana Mosneaga (DanChurchAid, Denmark)
Panellists: Beatrice Riva (IDMC, Switzerland), Alesia O’Connor (IDMC, Switzerland), Dr Lena von Naso (Norwegian Refugee Council, Germany), Dr Peter van der Windt (New York University, Abu Dhabi), Dr. Jerome Elie (Asia Displacement Solutions Platform, Bangladesh) and Shahadat Hossain (South Asian University, India)
Session 5A - Including IDP Children in Defining Solutions: Lessons from Ethiopia (THEMATIC)
Moderator: Tory Clawson (Save the Children International, Canada)
Panellists: Enguday Meskele Ashine (Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, Ethiopia), Tsion Teferra (Save the Children, Ethiopia), Presentation from member of children’s parliament, Ethiopia
Session 5B – Local Responses to Internal Displacement (OPEN)
Moderator: Dr Carolien Jacobs (Leiden Law School, Netherlands)
Panellists: Dr Jared R. Dmello (University of Adelaide, Australia), Dr Beth Mitchneck (University of Arizona, USA), Rebecca Enobong Roberts (Technical University of Berlin, Germany) and Dyan Mabunga Rodriguez (University of the Philippines Baguio, Philippines)
Distinguised Keynote & Conference Close - From Displacement to Solutions: Pathways to Break Patterns of Protracted Internal Displacement
Robert Piper, Special Adviser on Solutions to Internal Displacement, Office of the United Nations Secretary General