THE ROLE OF NGOS AND INTERNATIONAL

ORGANIZATIONS IN COMBATING REFUGEE SUFFERING

INTRODUCTION
This session shall be conducted on day two of our conference and as the name suggests will
deal with the roles played by NGOs and International Organizations in the Indian context to
mitigate the injustice meted out to refugees.
The session shall involve a panel consisting of Mrs. Paula Bannerjee (President, Calcutta
Research Group) and Ms. Vasudha Reddy from ARA. The session should preferably go on
for a maximum of two hours which each panellist completing their material in one 45 mins- 1
hour. Mrs. Bannerjee shall go first followed by Ms. Reddy.
THEMES TO BE PRESENTED
We would like this panel to discuss how NGOs have worked either with or against the state in
providing aid for refugees. You can also speak about ARAs specific role over the years in
implementing the same. We hope for you to shed light on ARAs origin, goal and initiative
and details on how exactly to it has functioned over the years. It would be wonderful if you
could go in depth of your first hand experiences working with refugees.
We urge that you try to make the session as interactive as possible, involving the audience
with questions, activities, debates and discussions. For example, you can discuss the current
level of coordination between International Organizations like Amnesty International or the
International Refugee Organization and domestic NGOs. Along similar lines you can also
discuss more generally the relationship between the State and NGOs and whether historically
such lose ties have been aggravating or mitigating factors in their common socialistic aim. In
order to further interaction, you could conduct an exercise where the participants must pitch
ideas or develop a scheme to improve coordination between these three parties. The speakers
may also attempt to draw analogies with other developing countries with similar troubles to
those faced in India and debunk (with the involvement of students) the aspects of their
policies, laws and schemes which may prove beneficial in the Indian scenario.
RELEVANT MATERIAL
http://heinonlinebackup.com/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?
handle=hein.journals/jrefst7&section=35
http://reliefweb.int/report/india/ngos-and-government-discuss-gaps-protection-youngrefugees
http://www.ngosindia.com/fa/R1.htm
http://www.worldlii.org/int/journals/ISILYBIHRL/2001/7.html
http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10603/28322/11/11_chapter%205.pdf

https://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/minority/Tibetan.pdf
http://www.jstor.org/stable/23603367?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://ijrl.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/2_and_3/238.short
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2546429?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40644943?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://heinonlinebackup.com/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/hhrj10&section=8