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THE STANLEY FOUNDATION

On November 14, 2000, over 300 refugee policy advocates gathered in Washington and discussed how to stem and reverse the erosion of refugee protection. Participants heard from leaders of refugee and internally displaced person communities, as well as senior US and UN officials, including UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata. Mrs. Ogata summarized the wide-ranging challenges involved saying, "Protecting refugees does not only mean encouraging governments to sign the Refugee Convention and to adopt refugee laws, it also means facing down hostile border guards—who likely have never heard of these instruments—making sure refugees are allowed to enter and are not detained, mistreated, or abused." The conference was organized by the Stanley Foundation together with nearly 30 other organizations. Details can be found on the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Web site: www.lchr.org/conference/trial_new.html.