Workshop for PRR practitioners and diplomats

                                       5 August 2022, ONLINE, 15h00 Geneva time

CONTEXT AND RATIONAL

More than 60,000 women and children with links to ISIS have been held in the Al-hawl and Roj camps in northeast Syria. The UN Member states have been challenged by the issue of how to repatriate and manage women and children returnees from Iraq and Syria. Each case has to be handled carefully, with full consideration of individual needs, the trauma they experienced, their level of radicalization and the security risks they may pose. The Bulan Institute is organizing the workshop to identify and share good practices in four countries in Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan) in the rehabilitation and reintegration of children returnees. The workshop is designed for diplomats and PRR practitioners who are working with returnees or aim to join such programs in their respective countries.

OBJECTIVES

The workshop aims to identify and share good practices in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in the following aspects of rehabilitation and reintegration of children:

• Management of child returnees, addressing their first needs and developing good practices to act at the best interests of children;
• Protecting children, including their right to good health, well-being and education.
• Providing with psychological assistance with a specific focus on management of trauma and activities to support rehabilitation;
• Highlighting and sharing emerging good practices where they exist, and identify critical gaps regarding management of returning children over the medium and longer-term.
• Fostering dialogue between practitioners in Central Asia and other regions and facilitate an exchange of knowledge on existing national approaches.

SPEAKERS:

Zhyldyz DUISHENOVA, Director of             

the Public Foundation “Future of the

Country”, Kyrgyzstan

FARZONA SHARIFZODA ABDURAUF,   

Psychologist, Tajikistan

Noah TUCKER, the Atlantic Council, USA

Biographies of the speakers

Sharifzoda Farzona Abdurauf, Tajikistan

Farzona Sharifzoda is a psychologist and the leading specialist in the field of modern Islamic studies at the Islamic Studies Center under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan. As a practical psychologist in cognitive behavioral therapy, she was involved in assisting returnee children repatriated from Iraq. She also works as a coordinator of project “Adolescents are partners of sustainable development”, implemented by NGO, “Initiative youth of Tajikistan”.

Noah Tucker, USA

Noah Tucker is a non–resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and has been a program associate at the Elliott School of International Affairs since 2016. His current research focuses on issues relating to violent extremism and human rights. He worked as a researcher, research consultant and editor for numerous organizations, including RFE/RL, the US State Department, USAID, USIP; the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United Nations Development Program, and Freedom House. In 2012, he earned a master’s degree from Harvard University in Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies. 

Zhyldyz Duishenova, Kyrgyzstan

Zhyldyz Duishenova is an expert on education, development, and children protection. Currently, she is a director of the Public Foundation “Future of the Country” in Kyrgyzstan. She worked with UNICEF for several years supporting the project on community-based education management and information system. She also worked in inclusive education projects having developed and facilitated trainings. Zhyldyz was a member of expert group in Kyrgyzstan which was responsible for organizing schooling and reintegration of children repatriated from Iraq.

REGISTRATION: The workshop is designed only for diplomats and PRR practitioners. Registration is obligatory for this event. Please register here: https://forms.gle/jBrNphVcMLXamNf37