Workshops

Workshop 1 - Wednesday 28 November


THE BEST INTERESTS QUESTION: STRATEGIES FOR BEST PRACTICE IN WORKING WITH REFUGEE CHILDREN AND YOUTH (FULLY BOOKED)

This workshop is booked please email law.events@sydney.edu.au to be placed on a waitlist.

A one day workshop for decision makers, advocates and carers who work with refugee children and youth in both the legal protection and social welfare spaces.

Co-facilitated by the Young Center and the University of Sydney Law School, the Best Interests Workshop has been designed to identify principles of best practice for working with children in situations of forced migration. The workshop will:

  • identify challenges facing refugee children and youth at the various stages they present in asylum  and transition to settlement processes;
  • examine strategies for determining age and identifying vulnerabilities;
  • discuss interviewing techniques and  mechanisms for gathering information from and about children and young people;
  • explore the concept of developing a child’s rights focus using international law and comparative practices as a guide; and
  • provide practical training in ‘best interests’ determinations for refugee children and youth.

The Workshop will be followed on 29th – 30th November 2012 by the Creating New Futures for All Conference, hosted by The University of Sydney and One Billion Strong.  This will bring together leading academics and organizations specializing in children’s rights, refugee protection and disability. The goal is to promote the sharing of knowledge, experience and good practice around inclusion of children and young persons (including those with disabilities) displaced by war, conflict or disaster.

For more information, please contact Mary Crock

 

Wednesday 28th November
Time Topic Facilitators/Presenters
8:30am Workshop Registration  
9:00am Welcome, introductions and objectives Facilitators: Maria Woltjen (Director, the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights at the University of Chicago Law School)
Mary Crock (Professor of Public Law, University of Sydney)
9:30-10:30am Refugee Children in Context - A Panoramic View of the Systems
How children present (with and without parents/guardians) throughout refugee protection; border control and enforcement processes.  A panel of experts will present the continuum of instances where children and young persons are affected by the immigration control and refugee protection processes in Australia. The session will also cover the guidelines used in decision making and/or advocacy and discuss gaps and challenges.

Panel members include:

  • Border Official (Immigration(DIAC) official) - to describe the departments border control and refugee status determinatio sections.
  • Detention facility representative (Serco and or DIAC) - to give an overview of detention, how it works, length of stay, and decision making about release.
  • Care Agencey representative - to describe the system for the placement of unaccompanied children and young persons, how the system is different when contrasted with that pertaining to Australian nationals
  • Legal actor - to describe how the legal system works with respect to refugee children, including the roles of various actors; lawyers, migration agents ans representatives from the Refugee Review Tribunal

Facilitators: Maria Woltjen and Mary Anne Kenny

Panel members from:

  • Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS)
  • DIAC
  • Community Welfare Agencies (TBC)
  • Legal System
10:30am Break  
11:00am

Identifying need and vulnerability

    Overview of age identification issues for children , including the context in which questions arise, stakeholders, decision makers and examples of recurring cases.
  1. Age identification: how to identify childrens needs ans vulnerabilities, particularly in the context of age determination
  2. Why Age Matters – Cognitive Development and   Refugee Child
  3. Strategies for Learning Children’s Stories: practical tools for Learning Children’s Stories This session will include:
  • an interactive examination of strategies for effective interviewing.
  • a demonstration of mobility mapping and flow diagrams.

 

Facilitators:
Maria Woltjen
Mary Crock
Yanghee Lee
12:30pm Lunch  
1:30pm Developing a child’s rights focus
How to develop a childs rights focus in the absence of domestic best interests laws governing this population of children.
This session will provide an introduction to relevant international law - in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), guidelines from UNHCR (together with local child protection laws) to develop a rights based approach for advocates and decision makers.
Part I. Maria Woltjen will also give a presentation about the evolution of U.S. child advocate/guardian project.

Part II> Development of Best Interest recommendations. Workshop participants will learn how to use international authorities to develop best interests recommendationson behalf of asylum seeking children. Case studies will be used reflecting cases arising in the Australian context. Participants will be divided into small groups to consider the hypotheticals and invited to use the CRC and UNHCR Guidelines to develop arguments about the child’s best interests in each case. Case examples might include:
1. asylum seeker child raising issues of competency or capacity;
2. the care or management of an unaccompanied refugee child (UAM) during the status determination process   
3. transfer of a UAM to a regional processing centre such as Nauru;
4. return or repatriation.

Facilitated by Maria Woltjen
3:00pm Break  
3:30pm Mock Best Interests Determination Panel (BID)– We will convene a mock BID panel to develop recommendations on UAM case. Panelists, including the migration agent, an expert from the child’s country of origin, caring agency and expert on case issues - will discuss the case utilizing principles set forth in the CRC to try to reach concensus on behalf of the child. The audience will be invited to ask questions or make comments.

Panel Supervisor: Maria Woltjen
4:30pm Workshop closing discussion, evaluation, and briefing for Thursday & Friday Maria Woltjen
Mary Crock
5:00pm Close  

 

Workshop 2 - Wednesday 28 November

Workshop for disabled people's organisations

The Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) seeks to advance the rights and dignity of refugee and displaced persons with disabilities through advocacy, research and capacity development initiatives to support disability-inclusive refugee policy and practice at international and country levels. Towards this goal, WRC have undertaken a number of key initiatives over the last five years, including supporting United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to implement their Guidance on Working with Persons with Disabilities in Forced Displacement in selected countries in the Asia region. A critical action in the UNHCR guidance is engaging host country Disabled Person’s Organizations (DPOs) in identifying the needs of refugees and displaced persons with disabilities, advocating for their inclusion in national programs, and establishing effective referral systems for access to services. WRC has a particular interest in supporting DPOs to work with refugee agencies and displaced persons with disabilities.

This one day workshop, co-facilitated by WRC and Disabled People International Asia-Pacific (DPIAP), will bring together DPOs from host and resettlement countries in Asia to:

  • Raise awareness about the situation of refugees and displaced persons with disabilities across the region;
  • Discuss the different ways DPOs are already working with refugee agencies and/or refugees and displaced persons with disabilities; and,
  • Define future initiatives which DPOs may be able to undertake in their countries with refugee agencies and/or refugees and displaced persons with disabilities.

This workshop is free for selected DPO representatives whose attendance has been funded by AusAid under its International Seminar Support Scheme.  These delegates will also be invited to attend the Creating New Futures for All Conference on 29th – 30th November at the University of Sydney. DPO representatives not based in Australia will have their travel and living expenses covered (pending funding approval).

Wednesday 28th November
Time Topic Facilitators/Presenters
8:30am Workshop Registration  
9:00am Welcome, introductions and objectives Emma Pearce (Women’s Refugee Commission) & Saowalak Thongkuay (DPIAP)
9:30am Why consider refugees and displaced people in DPO work? The concept of cross-cutting issues. Saowalak Thongkuay (DPIAP)
10:00am Introducing refugee law: Who is a refugee? What is forced displacement or migration? What is the asylum process? What is resettlement? Professor Mary Crock
(University of Sydney)
10:30am Break  
11:00am Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: How does it apply to refugees and displaced with disabilities in different settings? Professor Ron McCallum AO (Chair of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities)
11:30am Protection concerns of refugee and displaced persons with disabilities (with a specific focus on women, children and youth) Emma Pearce (Women’s Refugee Commission)
12:00pm UNHCR and persons with disabilities UNHCR
12:30pm Lunch  
1:30pm Perspectives of refugees with disabilities  
2:00pm Group activity: How are we including refugees and displaced persons with disabilities in the disability movement? Saowalak Thongkuay (DPIAP)
3:00pm Break  
3:30pm Action planning: What activities could we do to the future to include refugees and displaced persons with disabilities? Emma Pearce (Women’s Refugee Commission)
4:30pm Workshop evaluation and briefing for Thursday & Friday Emma Pearce (Women’s Refugee Commission)
5:00pm Close  

 

For more information, please contact:

Emma Pearce
Women’s Refugee Commission                                                                  

Saowalak Thongkuay
DPIAP

 

 

 

1 The term “refugee” includes both children recognized as refugees under the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and asylum seeker children and youth. The terms is used in this fashion in recognition of the acknowledgement in Article 22 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that asylum seeker children should enjoy the same rights as Convention refugees in situations of forced displacement.