CRG has applied for regis tration of the new addres s

T he r epor t is divided int o s even m aj or s ect ions :

• T hree maj or changes in the year under r eview

• Programmes

• Publications

• Network, partner s , and collaboration

• Members hip

• T as ks for 2004- 2005

1 . At t he out s et t hr ee maj or changes have t o be t aken not e of :

a.

Due to a r eques t by the landowner of the pr evious premis es of the office of the CRG, the pr emis e (5B, Mahanirban Road, 2^nd Floor, Mahanirban Road, Kolkata 70029) was vacated, and fr om Febr uary 1, 2004, CRG has been functioning from FE 390, S ector 3, S alt Lake City, Kolkata 700106, on the bas is of an emergency decis ion of the Governing Body. CRG has applied for regis tration of the new addres s .

b.

By the previous year’s AGM decis ion, Ranabir S amaddar was appointed as the firs t Director of CRG; he is now the Dir ector of the CRG.

c.

T he office of the CRG has been r eorganis ed; part time s ys tem in the wor k of adminis tration and accounts has in the main ended.

2 . CR G in t he year 2 0 0 3 -2 0 0 4 w as engaged in t he f ollow ing pr ogr ammes :

a.

Winter Cour s e on For ced Migration;

b.

Res ear ch on Autonomy;

c.

Dialogue Pr ogramme,

d.

Media and human rights , particularly of the for cibly dis placed, and a creative media wor ks hop;

e.

Programme on the I DPs and the UN Guiding Principles

f.

Publication of REFUGEE WAT CH;

g.

Other Publications : Refugees and the S tate and S outh As ian Peace S tudies I

h.

Dialogue Pr ogramme

2.1 Winter Cour s e on For ced Migr ation: T he pr ogramme of CRG annual winter cour s e on for ced migration developed out of CRG’s pas t work in the field of for ced dis placement. T he firs t cour s e was held on 1- 15 December 2003 in Kolkata. T he cour s e was pr eceded by a two- month long dis tance education programme. 20 participants from all over S outh As ia and beyond attended the cours e. T he faculty members were als o from various countries . T he cour s e was publicis ed as much as pos s ible, and being the firs t of its kind generated enthus ias m. T he UNHCR, the Government of Finland, and the Brookings I ns titution s upported it. A broad bas ed advis ory committee was formed, which helped in framing the pers pective of the programme, the s tructure of the cours e, pr opos ed modules , plan of field vis it, preparation of the s yllabus and cours e material, the evaluation procedure and follow up meas ur es . On the inaugural occas ion wer e pr es ent the Chief of the UNHCR Mis s ion in I ndia, Lennart Kots alainen, His Excellency the Ambas s ador of Finland to I ndia, Glen Lindholm, and the Br ookings I ns titution Joint Director of the Pr ogramme on I DPs , Roberta Cohen. T he well- known peace res earcher and campaigner of I s rael, Lev Grinberg gave the inaugural addres s . T he valedictory addr es s was delivered by the famous s ocial theoris t of nationalis m, Benedict Anders on, and certificates of appreciation wer e awar ded by UNHCR Deputy Chief of Mis s ion, Wei Meng Lim Kaaba.

T he cours e r es ulted in a s trong networ k of the participants of the cour s e. T he cours e was r emar kable for three featur es , which CRG thinks s hould remain as characteris tics of the winter programme – (a) emphas is on gender , (b) s tr es s on

experiences and s tudying law in the mirror of experiences , and (c) wide pers pective of j us tice, rights , and citizens hip in which the iss ue of forced migration is placed.

A copy of the r eport is enclos ed (enclos ure 1)

2.2 Res ear ch and dialogue on autonomy: T he firs t dialogue on autonomy was held in S hillong on 10- 11 April. For the firs t time, a gr oup of academics , human rights and peace thinkers and activis ts , particularly fr om the Eas t and the Northeas t, as s embled to dis cus s frankly and clos ely the is s ue of autonomy in the contex t of conflicts , minority rights , right of s elf- determination, politics of homeland, and the governmental policy of ethnic accords to grant limited autonomy to res olve conflicts – in s hort in the wider context of j us tice, peace, and democracy. T he report on the dialogue came out s ubs equently (enclos ur e 2), and was widely dis tributed and appreciated from various quarters . T he I nter national Centre for Ethnic S tudies , Colombo s upported the initiative.

T he S hillong dialogue led to the initiation of a two year long detailed res ear ch and dialogue programme on autonomy, the pr ogr amme being s upported by the Ford Foundation. T he programme as has been mentioned has two components – (a) a ten- s ection s trong res earch wor k to be completed within one year and to be followed by the publication of a volume and a compendium of relevant documents and keywords , (b) thr ee r ounds of dialogues in the entire programme period. T he programme was drawn on the bas is of the dis cus s ions in S hillong. T he res earch s egment has commenced duly, and the firs t of the three dialogues was held in Varanas i on 29- 30 March 2004. I t was obs erved in cours e of the dialogue that res earches on democratic experiments in this country had been largely ins ens itive to the theor y of (national) s over eignty and the actual reality of a democracy that in practice was pus hing for ward the notion of s har ed s over eignty and autonomy.

Briefly the ques tions rais ed wer e: (a) Given that there have been irrever s ible s hared experiences , can the I ndian and Wes tern s ocieties be s o neatly divided s o as to obtain two qualitatively dis tinct notions of autonomy? (b) Can the ethnic accords on grant of autonomy be regarded as ‘moment of r ecognition’ of divers e ethnic identities , or are they not rather the moments of denial, hiding the as ymmetries of power between the s ignatories ? (c) I s local governance neces s arily to be unders tood from within the purview of s tate ins titutions ? (d) Even though it might be us eful to make a cros s - s tate (within I ndia) comparis on of experiences of fis cal autonomy, yet even after s uch comparis on has been done, and found out as to who gains fis cal autonomy by what route and to what end, the s ignificant ques tion will be – autonomy for local s elf government or for governing the local? (e) I f, as is pos s ibly true that, any demand for autonomy s hows s ome degree of negotiability, is it pos s ible to exhaus t the meaning and definition of autonomy within the formal- legal s ens es ? (f) What are the ways in which the idea of citizens hip in I ndia can be re- imagined in the context of the politics of autonomy? (g) How do we j udge the autonomy- enhancing capacity of an ins titution in relation to its capacity to advance democracy within the group? (h) Autonomy in the borderlands is a critical theme in national governmental politics ; thus , ques tion is important: a centralized dis pos ition of autonomy or autonomy of autonomies ? I nteracting autonomies ? T her e ar e of cour s e various kinds of autonomies – horizontal, vertical, interacting. (i) How can one map the various provis ions of international law on autonomy, given its highly fragmented nature, and the deep impact of globalis ation on autonomy s eeking politics throughout the world? (j ) Above all, what is the final tes t of autonomy in a gender unj us t polity and s ociety? How s hould one j udge in this res pect the is s ue of

women’s autonomy? What is at the heart of the ques tion of women’s autonomy:

repres entation / j us tice / rights – all thes e in relation to the exis ting patriarchal politics and the S tate, in relation to the movement?

T he deliberations als o dis cus s ed the modalities of preparing the Compendium of documents and keywor ds r elevant to the theme of autonomy. T he dialogue report has been s ent to all participants and will be hopefully of help to the res ear ch collective.

S amir K. Das and S abyas achi Bas u Ray Chaudhury have been helping the Director in this programme in their capacity as j oint coordinators . T he full report of the dialogue is enclos ed (enclos ur e 2).

2.3 Dialogue Pr ogr amme: As part of CRG’s dialogue programme (two dialogues had already been held previous ly in Kolkata and S hantiniketan, Bolpur) two mor e dialogues were held in the year under review – in S hillong and Varanas i, the details of which have been given in the preceding s ection dealing with res ear ch programme on autonomy.

2.4 Media and human r ights and Cr eative Media Wor ks hop: CRG’s media programme began with the kind s upport and encouragement of WACC, London under the banner of the rights to communication – in this cas e the rights of the victims of for ced dis placement to communicate. S uch a pr ogramme goes beyond the right to information. I n the year under review the CRG pr ogramme on media had two components – (a) a media audit on the is s ue of for ced dis placement, (b) and, a cr eative media works hop on the is s ue. T hes e two parts formed an integral whole.

While the firs t part of the proj ect made an attempt at auditing mainly the mains tream media and its cover age on forced dis placement of population from the per s pective of human rights , j us tice and democracy, the s econd part aimed to bring out a s our ce book on the cr eative writings of any particular community of victims . As the es s ential firs t s tep, three cas es of Jammu and Kas hmir, I ndia’s northeas t and Wes t B engal were s elected and audit reports bas ed on thes e three cas e s tudies wer e prepared. A careful comparis on of thes e three cas e s tudies enriched the activis ts ’ knowledge of the victims and helped them evolve divers e media s tr ategies in order to cope with the problem of for ced migration. T hes e r eports have now been publis hed – the firs t is a r eport of the wor ks hop, the s econd is a collection of the three media audits , and the third a collection of cr eative writings – primarily non- fictional - by the Bhutanes e r efugees now exiled in Nepal for mor e than ten years . T he Cr eative Writer s ’ Works hop on Forced Dis placement of Population - was held in Darj eeling from 6 to 10 November 2003.

T he Works hop was organized with a few key obj ectives in mind: I ts firs t and perhaps the mos t fundamental obj ective was to bring the victims of for ced dis placement into the centr e- s tage of public dis cours e and make them an integral part of the civil s ociety. T he Works hop als o deliberated on how the entry of the victim uns ettled the given flow of communication, given the fact that the is s ue of refugee rights always cr os s es adminis trative and mains tream media boundaries . T he wor ks hop als o aimed to s ee how the very act of r eporting and writing pus hed the victims as ide and how appropriate writing and reporting s trategies could be evolved with a view to enhance their dialogic and communicative s kill. As the works hop noted, cr eativity in writing therefor e marks a depar tur e and cr eates a trans cendence of their victim-hood. T he wor ks hop did not look upon the victims mer ely as victims , but as potentially

cons cious , rights - bearing agents who continuous ly communicate in divers e and hitherto imponder able ways and ther eby r emade many of the es tablis hed forms of communication, notwiths tanding their handicaps , s ubj ection and victim- hood.

WACC appr eciated the three reports . T he media audits were particularly s ignificant for bringing out trends in the pers pective of thr ee differ ent cas e s tudies , the pronounced gender factor, the media behaviour , the nature of victims ’ profiles in the media, and the ways in which we can deepen our under s tanding of the world of communication on the is s ue of for ced dis placement. Ms . Paula Banerj ee vis ited the WACC office in London, explained our work, and dis cus s ed with WACC colleagues further ideas about our plans for the media programme that include the bas is of three s egments – r es earch, reporting, and media works hop. I n the lis t of res earcher s and res ource pers ons among others wer e Anuradha Bhas in Jamsawal, Kris hna Banerj ee, Bhupen S armah, A.G. Kannabiran, Pamela Philipos e, and Urbas i Butalia.

T he thr ee reports are now available (enclos ur e 3). S ubhas Chakraborty and S amir K.

Das primarily, wer e in charge of the pr ogr amme.

2.5 Res earch and T r aining Pr ogr amme on UN Guiding Pr inciples: On the completion of the collective res earch on the s tate of the UN Guiding Principles in S outh As ia in the per s pective of mas s ive internal dis placement in the region, CRG dis cus s ed with the Br ookings I ns titution the pos s ibility of a follow up programme in the form of a S outh As ian training programme on the Guiding Principles . A plan was concretis ed, and will be implemented in the following year, 2004- 2005. Meanwhile the res earch paper s wer e revis ed, an editorial board cons is ting of Paula Banerj ee, S abyas achi Bas u Ray Chaudhury was formed, and an unders tanding was arrived with S age Publications for the publication of the volume in the next year. T he B rookings I ns titution has again helped CRG in publication of the volume in terms of editorial advice and publication s ubs idy. CRG is in particular thankful to Rober ta Cohen and Marianne Makar of the Brookings I ns titution their encouragement and as s is tance.

2.6 Refugee Watch: With is s ue 18, REFUGEE WAT CH enter ed the s ixth year of its publication. I n the year under review three is s ues were publis hed, nos . 18, 19, and 20. An index of all articles till date publis hed in REFUGEE WAT CH was als o publis hed (enclos ure 4). T he plan for publis hing S elections fr om Refugee Watch could not be materialis ed. I t is hoped that the work would be completed within 2004.

I s s ue no 18 (April 2003) had as focal theme, “Delimited by Barbed Wires : Refugees from the Eas t”. I s s ue 19 (Augus t 2003) had as focal theme the “I nter nally Dis placed Per s ons of S outh As ia”. T he focal theme of is s ue 20 (December 2003) was “T he Dis placed Pers ons Right to Communicate”. Details of thes e three publications are enclos ed (enclos ur e 5).

While the publication ventured into s ome new themes and publis hed writings of s everal new contributors , and earned prais e fr om many quarters for cons is tency and high quality, there ar e s ome pr oblems with the publication. I t needs more r eportage;

circulation needs to be widened; the mailing lis t needs to vas tly updated and improved, and more contribution is needed to cover s piralling mailing expens es . S outh As ian board meetings have been s till not realis ed, though electr onic communication among editorial board member s has helped the cons ultation. Overall planning will als o need improvement.

Paula Banerj ee continues to be the editor; the editorial board was r eorganis ed, and an editorial advis ory board was formed. T he S outh As ia Forum for Human Rights , EZ E, and ECCO continue to s upport the publication.

2.7 Other Publications (Refugees and the S tate and S outh As ian Peace S tudies I):

T he collective res earch on the fifty year his tor y of s tate practices of as ylum, relief, protection, s ettlement and res ettlement in I ndia with regard to refugees was publis hed by S age on behalf of the CRG in June 2003 under the title, “Refugees and the S tate”. Ranabir S amaddar edited the volume. T he volume was r eleas ed at a well - attended and well- deliberated book r eleas e ceremony at the I ndia I nternational Centr e, New Delhi, on the occas ion of the World Refugee Day. S everal eminent per s onalities , NHRC member, j uris ts , academics , j ournalis ts , and human rights activis ts attended the function. On behalf of CRG pres ent wer e Paula Banerj ee, S amir Kr. Das , and Ranabir S amaddar. Ranabir S amaddar and Paula Banerj ee addr es s ed the gathering.. T he book has come in for appr eciation from s everal quarter s for its rigorous res earch, wide s cope, and the light that it throws on the “politics of car e”.

T he volume includes s everal cas e s tudies , has s trong gender implications in terms of analysis that it pres ents , and ties a vas t his tory of trans - border population flow and practices of care into a coher ent narrative and an analytical frame of care and power . With this publication CRG has made a dis tinct mark on the I ndian world of policy s tudies on refugee flows . UNHCR s upported the publication as it had earlier s upported the r es ear ch.

CRG als o finalis ed in this period another volume for publication - the firs t in the four- volume s eries titled, S outh As ian Peace S tudies , which S age will be publis hing. CRG has an editorial board for this . Ranabir S amaddar is the s eries editor, als o the editor of the firs t volume. S amir Kr. Das is des ignated as the editor of the s econd volume, Paula Banerj ee is the editor of the third volume, and Uj j wal Kr. S ingh will edit the fourth volume. T he volumes will be on four themes - per s pectives , peace pr oces s , gender , and human rights . T he volumes will follow a uniform format to the extent pos s ible, and an editorial team particularly meant for a volume will guide each volume.

With this s eries , CRG hopes to make its mark on the field of peace s tudies with its own dis tinct approach. T o s ay the leas t, the s er ies has potential.

3 . I n s hor t , CR G cam e out w it h t he f ollow ing publicat ions in t he year under r eview :

• Refugees and the S tate

• Refugee Watch

• T hir d Civil S ociety Dialogue on Human Rights and Peace

• Media and Dis placement I

• Media and Dis placement I I

• Media and Dis placement I I I

• Repor t of the Fir s t CRG Winter Cour s e on For ced Migr ation

Bes ides thes e lis ted above, work continued on the pr eparation of the publication of S outh As ian Peace S tudies I and I I , the volume on the I DPs in S outh As ia and the UN Guiding Principles on I nternal Dis placement, and S elections fr om Refugee Watch.

4 . Net w or k of par t ner s hip and collabor at ion:

I n the year under r eview CRG’s network of collaboration and partners hip expanded.

T he mos t notable was the achievement of a cons ortium of thr ee s upporters and s pons or s for the Firs t CRG Winter Cour s e on Forced Migration – the UNHCR, the Brookings I ns titution, and the Government of Finland. T he Cours e was als o a pr oduct of the networ k that CRG meanwhile had developed thr ough the dialogues and

previous r es ear ch and publication activities of the continuing publication of Refugee Watch with the help of a S outh As ian advis ory board and a S outh As ian editorial board. CRG als o es tablished a dis tinct s tyle of running its programmes by forming advis ory groups cons is ting of non- CRG member s als o who ar e experts in the r elevant field.

Equally important is the partner s hip with WACC (London), which has opened up the pos s ibility of working on media and building up a network of media activis ts and cr eative writer s in related fields .

T he s trong network of collaboration has been an as s et and one of the s trong reas ons for different ins titutions , agencies , and pers ons in s upporting CRG. B ecaus e, this is s uch a vital human res ource, two tas ks ar e in order:

• Finding out ways in which this can be trans lated into other forms of s upport

• Maintaining by various ways the links , cooperation, s pirit of mutual as s is tance, developing s hared goals through continuous exchange of views that form the core of a network

Pres ently the ins titutions that CRG has been privileged to work with:

• Ain o S alis h Kendra (Dhaka)

• Aurat Foundation (Lahore)

• Brookings I ns titution (Was hington D.C.)

• Centr e for the S tudy of Geopolitics , Panj ab Univer s ity (Chandigarh)

• Cons ortium of Humanitarian Agencies (Colombo)

• Department of Communications , United T heological College (Bangalore)

• Department of I nternational Relations and Centre for Refugee S tudies , Univers ity of Jadavpur (Kolkata)

• Department of I nternational Relations , Karachi Univers ity (Karachi)

• Department of Political S cience, Univer s ity of Rabindra Bharati (Kolkata)

• Department of S outh and S outh Eas t Asian S tudies , Univers ity of Calcutta (Kolkata)

• Ford Foundation (New Delhi)

• Friedrich Naumann S tiftung (New Delhi)

• Government of Finland

• I ndian Council of S ocial S cience Res ear ch (Northeas t Centr e, S hillong)

• I nternational Centre for Ethnic S tudies (Colombo)

• Konrad Adaneuer Foundation (New Delhi)

• Malaviya Peace Res earch Centr e, at the B enaras Hindu Univers ity (Varanas i)

• National Peace Council of S ri Lanka (Colombo)

• Nepal I ns titute of Peace (Kathmandu)

• Other Media (New Delhi)

• Pakis tan- I ndia People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (Wes t Bengal Chapter, Calcutta)

• S outh As ia Forum for Human Rights (Kathmandu) and through it EZ E- ECCO

• T he Naga Mother s ’ As s ociation (Kohima)

• UNHCR (New Delhi)

• Women in S ecurity, Conflict Management and Peace (WI S COMP, New Delhi)

• Women’s S tudies Centr e, Utkal Univers ity (Bhuvanes war)

Bes ides , it is the centre of a network of peace and cultural activis ts of eas t and northeas t, whos e third meeting was held by CRG in S hillong in 2003.

5 . T as ks :

T he tas ks that CRG faces in view are in the following areas :

a.

S ecuring long- term grant and commitment,

b.

Following a well- cons ider ed res earch and publication policy that is not neces s arily tied or initiated by fund cons iderations

c.

Engaging new and young talented res earcher s ;

d.

S us taining the combination of intellectual and advocacy activities ;

e.

Developing a compr ehens ive and informative webs ite,

f.

S us taining the four maj or pr es ent fields of activities , namely r es ear ch wor k on democracy, winter cour s e on forced migration, res earch and advocacy work on the I DPs , media, human rights and peace, and the civil s ociety dialogue programme

g.

Building up a good res ource centr e;

h.

I nitiating a Bengali publications programme

i.

Running a public lecture programme cons is tently to widen our network

j.

S ecuring government funding;

k.

And an appropriate organis ation policy, s uch as r eorganis ing the various s ub- committees , inducting new members , attracting young talents , etc..

I n brief, in terms of r es ear ch programme, the primary tas k is to maintain and s harpen the critical edge of our res earch wor k while maintaining our thrus t areas (themes and region). I n terms of organis ing and mobilising our res our ces the tas k is to engage, as much as pos s ible, our member s and partners in our wor k, and dis tribute the burdens and res pons ibilities among the member s , and giving everybody a chance to acquire s kill and bear r es pons ibility for the collective work.