FAHAMU has joined the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA). ICVA is concerned with refugees around the world and is headquartered in Geneva where it works with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Membership of ICVA has been largely confined to agencies delivering humanitarian assistance but since 2005, NGOs concerned with refugee rights have begun to join ICVA. FAHAMU wants to encourage this shift in direction towards a concentration on refugee rights.

ICVA maintains targeted e-mail distribution lists to share information and analyses of on-going policy processes and debates and to maintain and foster active links and alliances with, and among its members. These lists are also used to solicit NGO input to help ensure a more adequate representation of NGO views on the international level.

One of its targeted mailing lists is open to NGOs who are not members of ICVA. FAHAMU therefore encourages refugee/human rights organizations to subscribe to this list by writing an email to [email][email protected] What you will receive is detailed below. Please indicate that you heard of this invitation through FAHAMU or Pambazuka News.

· Refugee/IDP Issues: ICVA is the focal point for coordinating NGO statements and other input to UNHCR’s governing bodies: the Executive and Standing Committees. ICVA uses this list to ask for volunteers to both draft and provide substantial input to the NGO statements for the two Committees or other meetings UNHCR may hold, and to consolidate NGO input for the Executive Committee’s Conclusions and Decisions. ICVA co-hosts UNHCR’s Annual Consultations with NGOs, and uses this list to engage NGOs in the preparations. Members on this list will also receive messages on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other issues related to forced displacement, which come up in the context of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) or other international policy and coordination bodies like the clusters.