Training opportunities have played an important role in developing and forging stronger partnerships with governments officials and have often enabled UNHCR to exert a significant degree of influence on asylum practices and the treatment of refugees. The participation of LAS and member states officials in capacity-building sessions have contributed to enhancing the expertise of government officials to deal with refugee, IDPs and Statelessness issues.
During the past five years, UNHCR and LAS General Secretariat organized nine training sessions for 583 officials from 21-member states (Ministries of Interior, Justice and Foreign Affairs). All courses were facilitated by UNHCR and embraced the San Remo modules.
The capacity-building sessions revolved around three themes: International Refugee Law, Internal Displacement in the Arab region and Statelessness. All the trainings were conducted jointly by UNHCR, Arab Interior Ministers Council and the League of Arab States.
Trainings on International Refugee Law have been ongoing since 2016 to help UNHCR disseminating knowledge about its mandate and role, as well as the definition of the refugee under the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol, and the protection of refugees in mass influx situations and mixed migration movements.
Similarly, trainings on internal displacement are conducted since 2018, in application of LAS Resolution (723/29J3 15/4/2018) adopted at the LAS Council on the Summit level, aiming at promoting the IDPs Guiding Principles and developing a common understanding on how international and regional instruments and policies can be promoted and implemented on the national level to enhance developing and applying policies and standards in conformity with the principles of international humanitarian law and human rights law.
Emanating from the importance of strengthening the knowledge of UNHCR’s mandate on “Statelessness” and raising awareness on UNHCR’s work on reducing and preventing statelessness in the region, trainings on Statelessness have been taking place since 2017. In 2019, a training of trainers (ToT) was conducted to respond to the growing need for knowledge on ways to reduce stateless situations based on the recommendations of the Ministerial Conference on “Belonging and Legal Identity” held in partnership with the Arab League in February 2018. The ToT aimed at providing participants with the necessary legal background and practical experience to serve as professional trainers in dealing with statelessness and to promote the exchange of good practices on how to effectively reduce statelessness and protect stateless persons, as well as to promote the implementation of UNHCR Global Plan of Action to end statelessness as part of the #IBelong Campaign, while encouraging the elimination of gender discrimination in nationality laws as one of the root causes.