Call for Seminar Papers: Palestinian Refugees in the Arab World: Realities and Prospects 24-25 March 2012

Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, in collaboration with the Palestinian Return Centre in London, is organising a research seminar entitled “Palestinian Refugees in the Arab World: Realities and Prospects” in Doha on Saturday and Sunday, 24 – 25 March 2012. The organising committee calls on experts and those interested in participating in the event to present working papers addressing one of the topics listed under the themes below.

Seminar Themes 1. Palestinian Refugees: Roots, Realities and the Future a. Historical origins and context of the Palestinian refugee issue; b. International initiatives to solve the refugee problem; c. The Arab initiative and prospects for the Arab vision of the right of return. 2. International Legal Concerns and Rights on the Refugee Issue a. The issue of refugees and international law; b. The UNRWA crisis and Arab and international efforts concerning Palestinian refugees. 3. Conditions of Palestinian Refugees in the Arab World a. Legislation in Arab countries concerning Palestinian refugees; b. Political and social conditions of Palestinian refugees in the Arab world. 4. The Arab Revolutions and the Refugee Issue a. A political reading of the Arab revolutions and their influence on the Palestinian situation in general; b. The impact of the Arab revolutions on the Palestinian internal situation and on Palestinian refugees in diaspora; c. The potential impact of Arab political changes on the refugee issue and the right of return; d. Palestinian youth and the Arab revolutions, using marches for return as a model. 5. State and the Right of Return a. Recognition of the Palestinian state and/or the Jewishness of the State of Israel and its impacts on the right of return. Mechanism for participation: -    Those who would like to participate in the seminar must submit an abstract of approximately 400 words highlighting the major arguments of the research paper. -    Abstracts should be submitted before 21 January 2012. -    The authors of those abstracts that are accepted will be notified no later than 31 January 2012 of the acceptance and will be required to prepare a full paper. -    The organising committee will be responsible for travel and accommodation expenses of authors whose papers are selected. Requirements: -    Papers must be between 2 000 and 3 000 words in length. -    Papers must not have been published or presented in other conferences or seminars. -    Papers should include margins and basic references in accordance with academic styles. -    Only papers in Arabic or English will be accepted. -    The language must be clear and free of grammatical and spelling errors. -    Papers must consider standards of objective academic research, without defamation and of any persons or institutions. -    Copyright and distribution rights of accepted papers will belong to the seminar organisers who will have the right to publish papers in full or in part, in any form and in any language. -     Electronic versions of accepted papers must be submitted in Microsoft Word and PDF formats. -     The deadline for the final submission of full papers is 7 March 2012. -    The committee may request modifications to submitted papers. Amended papers must be submitted by 15 March 2012. -    Each paper must be accompanied by a curriculum vitae (CV) of no more than 500 words. Please send the following details with your paper to one of the emails below:

Full Name: ......................................

Date of Birth: ......................................

Age: ............................................

Nationality: ..........................................

Country of residence: ..............................

Phone number: ....................................... E-mail: ………………………………………………………….

Theme of chosen research:........................

Title of paper: ..............................

choucairc@aljazeera.netevents.studies@aljazeera.netprc@prc.org.uk