 Okay, so we are nearly ready to start the last check I see that Christina is now here and we can see her in the camera so we are all ready to start dear colleagues, we are just on time and good morning, afternoon, evening to all of you connecting from different parts of the world and welcome to today's event, welcoming the stranger which is focusing on exploring the role of faith actors in protection of internally displaced persons. You may know that this webinar is actually part of our monthly thematic discussions, and many of you already participate, but today is really special. Why is it special because this session takes part within the global protection forum. And this was really on purpose. Why because we want to make sure that this topic so important can reach out to as wide audience as possible, even beyond our human rights engagement And then it can eventually also trigger or maybe inspire some of you to engage with wider spectrum of actors beyond our traditional counterparts and keep our minds really open in terms of our protection advocacy and protection interventions. You may know that our tasking on human rights engagement is a bit special, because actually beyond the more traditional culture of UNHCR we have two co-chairs in this task team who are faith based actors, World Lutheran Federation and so kagakai international. So we felt that we would like to transmit this experience and added value of the task team to all of you also in the field. And if we can go to the next slide, we will briefly look at our agenda today. I will give the floor in a moment to Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, who is the special reporter on human rights of internally displaced persons. Before we will have a very interactive and interesting panel with four panelists, who will share with us their experience and insight on the work of faith based actors in the context of internal displacement. Before going to really the interesting element that we want to hear from you in terms of discussions, exchanges, sharing questions, examples from field, and we would encourage all of you to use the chat functions throughout this event. Some of you already posted a short introduction about your function, but you can also use it for asking questions, for asking some elements, clarifications. We will be constantly monitoring the chat, and we will come back to you in the plenary part which is facilitated by William, who is the Global Protection Cluster Coordinator. We will conclude with closing remarks by HAYAS and see next steps what we could do as a task team on this very important topic. So with this and without taking much of the time of a very precious time in this session, I would like to give the floor to Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, who is the special reporter on human rights of IDPs to share with us her opening remarks for this session. Over to you Cecilia. Thank you so much Valery for welcoming me, and I hope I'm not a stranger to you. But thanks very much to the organizers for the invitation for me to be with you today in this very important thematic webinar and for giving me the floor. The experience in the field attests to the importance of the role of faith-based organizations in human rights, in humanitarian work, and in development. As the human special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, it's really my privilege to assert the theme of this event, welcoming the stranger. This is an affirmation, in my view, of the solidarity in humanity towards displaced persons wherever they may be. Recalling that displaced persons have actually been forced or have obliged to seek safety and security in other lands in other homes, be it in their own country or elsewhere outside the countries where they used to reside. And welcoming the stranger resonates, in fact, with the fundamental belief that all humanity is one, regardless of religion, ethnic origin, color, race, and other discriminatory grounds. This basic international norm of non-discrimination that define the commonality with the role in the role of faith-based organizations or actors in humanitarian settings. Echoing the welcoming the stranger affirmation adopted by faith-based actors under the ages of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, an essential background to this event. We find stated there, and I would like to quote this because for me it's a very important statement. Our faiths demand that we remember we are all migrants on this earth, joining together in hope. Indeed, this event attests by itself, attests to that affirmation of faith. However, it is also an affirmation, in my view, as a lawyer, it's an affirmation of international law application, particularly international human rights law, as well as international humanitarian when there is armed conflict. And this is a basic, both of these international law regimes has it's a basic premise that all humans are born with dignity and rights. So far and by the Vienna Declaration on Human Rights in 1995, and I was privileged to have been a part of that with representing as well many Asian, Asian Pacific non-government organizations including faith-based actors. Such dignity in rights are universal, indivisible, and interdependent. Thus the role of faith-based actors goes beyond the faith as expressed by them, but these are translated into concrete actions in the humanity of strangers, nevertheless, welcome them so that we may not be strangers anymore. These practical, programmatic actions are usually found not only in the form of commitments to such solidarity in kindness, but also in actual practice. This is essential in sustaining that dignity and rights which the universal declaration of human rights prevail on. Indeed, since the welcoming the stranger affirmation has been drawn up by faith-based actors in humanitarian settings, much has actually developed in terms of ensuring adequate policies and programs on the part of faith-based actors and organizations, be it NGOs or churches, even, or even individual groups of people. The organization of this work has actually evolved to be more responsive and more relevant in the alleviation of sufferings, risks to human rights violations and mitigating the vulnerability of such off-displaced populations. In fact, in one groundbreaking article that studied faith-based organizations tending to the displaced in Kenya, I think this was an article way back in 2011, it found that such organizations by providing diverse forms of practical, emotional, and spiritual support to internally displaced persons, in this case, actually facilitated the integration of displaced persons into their new circumstances, creating a sense of belonging and oneness. And importantly, that same article also argues that internally displaced persons have not simply relied upon the externally provided support by the churches and the faith-based organizations, but in fact the IDPs themselves drew upon their quote, personal and collective sense of faith and religious belief to overcome the challenges compounded by displacement. In short, while recognizing the significance of assistance provided by the faith-based organizations and churches to internally displaced persons or displaced persons in general, there is and should be a recognition of the ultimate centralization of the agency of the internally displaced persons themselves. Thus, enabling the political agency of political populations by the faith-based actors, as with all humanitarian actors, through the participation of the displaced populations in decisions affecting them, and ultimately, FBOs, faith-based organizations enabling conditions to facilitate the IDPs taking into their lives, taking their lives into their own hands, translates actually into eventual partnership between the faith-based organization and displaced persons. In the end, for me, the welcoming the stranger affirmation, while maybe necessary in the beginning, needs to develop as well into more genuine solidarity amongst the people concerned with the faith-based organizations and churches and which also balances the power in such displacement context. Friends, colleagues, we all know the current context of displacement worldwide and specific countries where we all work in, including faith-based organizations and actors, I don't have to deal with that. But with the numbers continuing to increase the gravity and intensity of displacement making compliance with international human rights and humanitarian standards more and more difficult, we find humanitarian actors including faith-based organizations facing challenges and obstacles in such welcoming the stranger. Humanitarian access is more and more restricted arbitrarily, funding is actually dwindling, political space to operate is constantly challenged. And in fact, in so far as some faith-based actors or organizations are concerned, particularly churches, the role in humanitarian settings are sometimes regarded with antagonism, often with suspicion. Moreover, unfortunately, spaces established by such faith-based organizations may even be transformed from spaces of refuge to targets of violence. In this context, it is important for us to assert that there is also solidarity that must be asserted among humanitarian organizations themselves in self-regulation. This is really essential. And I see this event further attesting to that with the integration of faith-based organizations into the wider humanitarian community. Thank you very much for your attention. And I look forward to hearing from the representatives of the faith-based organizations themselves on the work that they do, the challenges and their aspirations in welcoming the stranger, and of course hearing from the participants themselves. The work continues in this growing, more challenging environment, but I think that if we are also faithful to our own commitment, welcoming the stranger should also always be the norm rather than the exception. Thank you very much. Thank you so much Cecilia for bringing our attention so skillfully and so powerfully to various aspects that are related to engagement with faith actors and also reminding us some of the key concepts, principles, including the legal frameworks, but also solidarity, principle of non-discrimination and the faith, the hope that is key in the protection of internally displaced persons and leads to increased resilience. Thank you so much, dear Cecilia. And I would now like to pass the floor to Kate from Islamic Relief Worldwide to guide us through the panel discussion and advance us in the session. Over to you, Kate, please. Thank you, Cecilia. And yeah, thank you, Cecilia. You always speak so eloquently, but that was really, really powerful and an excellent guide and a tee-up for wonderful panelists who I'm going to introduce to you now. And so we're going to have four speakers and in this section they're going to do a little short sort of presentation first and we'll try and get through as much as we can so that we can have a really good Q&A. So please, as Valerie said, do share your questions as we go through. So we'll start with the wonderful father, Emmanuel Yukana, from the Capney Institute in working in Northern Iraq. And then we'll go to my colleague, Shukri Ali, who's with us for coming from Mogadishu today explaining about our work, Islamic Relief's work there. And then we'll pass to Nobuyuki Asai, from Sakurukai International in Japan, who's going to give us a really interesting insight into how faith-based organizations in developing developed contexts work when there is an emergency displacement situation. And then we'll go to Christina Garcia, who is the Regional Director for HIAS in Latin America and the Caribbean. He'll talk about the situation in a more broader regional perspective. So I don't want to take any more further time, I want to live as much time as we can for our friends to speak. But yeah, do bear in mind Cecilia's call, their colleagues to talk about the challenges, talk about how we translate faith into action, and the importance of welcoming the stranger affirmation and what that actually plays out in the communities where you work. So Father Emmanuel, over to you please, lovely to hear from you. Good morning, good afternoon, good day, good evening to everybody. Thanks for the organization, organizers, participants and audiences in this very important exchange and meeting. On behalf of CEPNI I would like to thank you for having the chance to learn from you and to share with you our experiences. Thank you from the most beautiful city, Dohok in Northern Iraq, in Iraq you could understand the province of Dohok which in one overnight in August 2014 became from 1.3 million populated province to two millions. One night in the first week of August, every two in the citizens or individuals in Dohok, the third was displaced. This became after this mass flee of people who were forced to flee from Sinjal, Nenever plain because of the ISIS, and occupation massacres which were being done by that time. So it was a manmade disaster. And being a manmade disaster, it can be expected, unfortunately, like in what's on the situation in Iraq, that it is a disaster with an open end. First of all, and second that the needs and the consequences of the disaster are beyond the material needs. Yes, we as CEPNI and other organizations had participated in life saving corporations to reduce, to eliminate the needs and help the people, the displaced people to survive. However, this was not enough and still not enough. Now despite we are to an extent in returning era, not displacement era, because we need we were in need and we are still in need to address the needs of people to restore the dignity. What happened to the displaced was not just they lost their assets, their livelihood, their normal life activities, schools, education, I mean health, et cetera, et cetera, but they were targeted deep and endured deep inside in as human and they were attacked in their dignity, whether in individual dignity or collective dignity, because what happened was, unfortunately, targeting the minorities based on their religious or ethnic background. I'm referring to ZDs and Christians, mainly. So, I'm not going addressing the meeting on what material support CEPNI and others did because this is very clear, but what was our more concern to restore and to help the community to restore their dignity. So we are speaking about dignity, virtuality. We were more involved to support in dignity issues. So this was not easy and so it's not easy because the targeted communities under ISIS suffered a lot and now they need to be convinced that they have a future in their homeland. This therefore we are more focusing and still we are focusing on the education because the displacement era was created was and is still creating a lost generation where thousands and thousands of children lost the opportunity to have formal education. Therefore, we were speaking and working with our partners to facilitate and provide the chance or the opportunity for the children to get their right for education and speaking for education. Also, we went further because whereas we thank all who supported in dealing and addressing the outcomes of the consequence of our consequence of the disaster, we believe we need to address the deep roots of the disaster and fix it once and forever. And to our understanding and analyzing the situation of Iraq is that this targeted minorities, mainly non Muslim minorities I'm referring to these Christians were targeted and still target target under ISIS and other fundamental groups are being plucked out of the community of the people. Therefore, the community and education system is creating an optimal environment for such fundamental groups. I'm referring here for example, just to conclude and give to other chances to my colleagues to learn from them. For example, in Iraq, we are speaking about five, five non Muslim minorities who do exist in Iraq before Iraq being an Islamic Arabic country. I'm referring to Yazidis, the Jewish, the Mandians. Yeah, and the, of course, Christians, all those minorities do exist are indigenous people of Iraq and do exist in Iraq are deeply rooted in Iraq, but nobody can believe that all those components of Iraqi textile are not introduced in the education curriculum. So the new generations of Iraq are graduating their gymnasium are graduating their high degrees academic degrees, but they are unaware of their next door. You can imagine that this, for example, this webinar brought us from all over the world in one room. We became an global village where we had to globalize every means mainly technology economy, but so far we have the challenge to globalize their values, but in Iraq, that generation are graduating where they are not knowing who is their next door. So for dealing with education, we are also working, hardly working that we succeeded to revise the curriculum to introduce those minorities in a positive way that they are part of the community, part of the society, part of the country, not just as history, in history, but in the present and the future. So I will, I will close here to give chance to my colleagues to learn from them. Thank you for the matter. Yeah, I think that's that's so interesting and hopefully we'll get will be able to have more time to learn a bit more about that. The experience you've got there, you know, have protracted and violent displacement over kind of many years of different reasons and how it can lead to an erasure of history and a razor of communities and a razor of indigenous communities, which we probably also see in Iraq and other places as well. So really important work there. Thank you so much. Okay, shukri. I'm going to pass over to you now to take a few minutes to explain about how your team there has worked with their imams and shakes and the networking Mogadishu of the last few years. Okay, thank you. And thank you to everyone, the organizers, the participants and the viewers. Yes, as I have been doing this previously, I'm shukri Mahmood Ali, working with Islamic Relief One Wide and Karate Relief based in Mogadishu, and I'm the area manager for Somalia. I'll be very brief, most of the timing, and I will just specifically go directly to the roles of the imams and the chefs, the faith leaders in relation to protection issues and the role they play in relation to faith perspectives. So the chefs in Somalia, they are normally used as a change agent, and because of their trusted roles, they are important partner to international NGOs and also local authorities because of their status. Faith leaders are also a nucleus to provide links to local communities, for those who have been in town and displaced and those who are hosting them. So they act as a linkage, or a coordinating, you know, a body. So between the IDPs, the government and the faith leaders, at the onset of, for example, during COVID-19, those are convictions and the lack of recognition. They are often spread the factual information, including the IDPs, in, for example, in areas, for example, like Baiduwa, Verdale, Dinsaur, Beledway, Dengile, in Banadir, in Mogadishu. So, during this COVID outbreak, there was a lot of conditions, some people were not believing that there is occurrence of illnesses, and all those things, so they have been used as an entry point, and they have been a very important people, so especially in relation also to protection. In Somalia, we have networks of imams and chefs, and then we have also the community leaders, and during Mogadishu, we mobilize the imams, and then they also trade, and they also provide key information. We have many imams and many leaders, and we also have some famous like Keshav and Deheji, which is also normally used for social media and all those things to spread the public health aspects, especially on protection and all those. Then the faith leaders, they also give needs based on programming design, using extra information they get from the interaction with the families. They also educate the communities, and help sensitization programs on the effect of SGBV to women and the girls, including FGMs, and the Safiya negative effect that it has economically and socially within the community, because of the culture. Then we also engage the faith leaders to educate communities on inclusion of women and minorities in the social and decision making. Therefore, Islamic Relief Somalia holds a session explaining the importance of gender rights, while faith leaders support Islamic evidences, using the Hadiths and all the programs. Islamic Relief Somalia will also engage one of the most influential and post-workin' chefs, especially in our COVID-19 program, protections, and we also trained some of the chefs to provide the cases so that we're able to produce a protection concern. Generally, in Somalia, the faith leaders, they educate the communities on FGM, its origin, and want its dear consequence on the women's and the girls, is currently it completely since it has no base in Islam. Because, for example, the FGM and all these things has no any basis in the Quranic teaching and the Hadith, so what the faith leaders usually do is they give education in relation to the impact on the effect of the FGM and SGBVF. Faith leaders in Somalia, so we also advocate for girl child education, related to women, as have us, or the disciples of the Prophet Muhammad. For example, his wife, Asha, the Prophet's wife, Asha, was able to narrate more than 40,000 Hadith in relation to, you know, girl child education, in relation to protection, even in the Quran and the Hadiths. There are so many surahs and hadiths and the verses, which also explains more about protections. In relation to protection and social content, faith leaders, they also brought intermediate between families, returning from abroad and local communities. For example, in Somalia, during the war, there were many people who have gone to abroad, and then they left the assets behind, and then when they have gone abroad, and then some of the assets were occupied by some other people. When they wanted to come back and get their businesses or assets or properties, some people were not able to give them the access to their land and property. So the chefs and the faith leaders are also used as mediation. So sometimes this is bringing some issue of the protections because of the resistance and all those things, so they are used as a key entry point. Whereas the risk is also high. Also, there's the loss of livelihoods. For example, possibly transfer as I have just shared, like the land and all those things. So the faith leaders are also used to do some mediation and solve some of the problems. Not dignified and it is what but a globally better than what might happen without iteration, I'm eviction guns and good distribution partnership between authorities, faith leaders and injured to attend IDB needs and rights. Because the IDB says a lot a lot of needs is special access to learn and all those things. So there's a kind of a coordination mechanism between the faith leaders and the government, the IDP the clusters are all those things at length at least they are able to coordinate. On the other side, that's unfortunate that sometimes the faith leaders are also used on the other side of the coin. For example, in case there is a rep. It's a culture, maybe, and you know, the society or the community especially those living in the rural. Sometimes, you know, the person, the perpetrator is not given, you know, a good, you know. So sometimes what happens is the leaders they see, according to the culture and then they call the faith leaders and then they said, okay, we'll able to compensate. For example, the person who has been raped and this and sometimes we see that the faith leaders will also collaborate and because they don't cause any more illnesses or any more harm. So sometimes they are useful on the side of the negative aspect. So I think that is it from the presentation. Generally, protection is a concern, especially in the IDPs, because as we are speaking in Somalia and I don't need to say this statics, we have over 2.9 million. In Somalia, especially in the major towns like Abaigua, Beleduin, Berdale, Dinsor, and even here in Bernadir in Moktosho city. And we also have over 2,400 substandard or unplanned IDPs sites across Somalia. And the key challenges also, especially on the IDPs is access to land is a key issue on protection. Thank you so much. Thank you for that overview. Just before I hand to Nobuyuki, I wanted to just add a note from the interpreters that I'm too fast, because I always speak too quickly. I'm sure Nobuyuki won't do so, but just to remind us of speakers to try and speak as slowly as you can. I think really important trickery there to note the role that the imams and the shagues play in Mogadishu as a kind of mediator and the trust that they build and they have with communities so that they can help to spread messages that really important protection messages, but also public health messaging in times of emergency context. So I think that's really interesting quite different perspective in different contexts. So over to you now Nobuyuki talked to us about the 2011 tsunami response. Thank you. Thank you, Kate. I'm Nobuyuki Asai from Sokagaka International. Sokagaka is a global lay Buddhist network and origin is in Tokyo and I myself based in Tokyo. Yeah, many thanks for giving this opportunity for this important event. My presentation is about our response to the earthquake and tsunami and nuclear power plant accident in 2011. Immediately after the disaster Sokagaka conducted relief activities. 42 of our Buddhist centers accommodated about 5000 evacuees, mainly in Iwate, Niani and Fukushima prefectures shown on this map. 90% of those IDPs were outside Fukushima. In Fukushima, particularly in the area close to the nuclear power plant, the situation was much more complicated. Due to the radioactive contamination, the government forced the people to local residents to evacuate to remote places. So they scattered across Japan. Generally speaking, the IDPs stayed in shelter, including our centers for about one to six months, and then gradually moved to temporary housing or vacant apartment rooms arranged by the government. Human needs continue to be met to a certain degree, such as food, housing and education, but new challenges emerged, such as isolated deaths and discrimination against Fukushima IDPs. In terms of isolated deaths, for instance, when the elderly IDPs moved to a new place, they often lost human connection and tended to stay home at home all day long. Even when they got sick, nobody would notice it and it would take some days or even weeks until he or her death was found. And discrimination against Fukushima IDPs consisted mainly of oral criticism, bullying in schools, and online hate speech that were caused by other people's fear of radiation, and envy of them because the Fukushima IDPs received compensation or temporary subsidy from the typical that caused the power plant accident. During this resettlement and recovery phase, we Sokagakai formed task force teams in the prefectures and supported by the headquarters in Tokyo. The teams were made up by dozens of people in the central area of its prefecture, which engaged in activities such as home visits, providing medical services, and other assistance, including organizing memorial services for those who lost family members. Sokagakai members focused on encouraging, giving encouragement, often from the faith perspective, so that IDPs could manifest their own resilience. Next slide please. For instance, an inspiring story is from Kenichi Kurosawa, one of the local residents in Miami, who lost everything due to tsunami. All through the night, he slept on the pine tree and came to our center on the following day. He faced severe depression for some weeks, but finally, in our shelter, he was inspired thanks to the encouragement and got determined to take action. He wrote a signboard saying, keep on going Ishinomaki, and this board became a symbol of recovery of the whole city. It is reproduced and displayed in the national memorial park that opens this march. FBO, including ourselves, could address the mental issue from their own viewpoint and expertise. I strongly feel that FBO succeeded in preventing isolated deaths and promoted human connection in the area they covered. Next slide please. Sokagakai's another unique initiative was a music concert series in the region. The purpose of the concert was to encourage IDPs and to help them regain hope in their lives. Before COVID, about 160 concerts were held that accommodated 60,000 participants. They were arranged through the consultation with the IDPs themselves. Most of them were held in small event rooms in the temporary housing unit, and traditional songs in the region were performed as well. Apart from that, about 20 Sokagakai members who left the nuclear power plant area voluntarily started a new initiative of encouraging all the members who left the area. Initially, they didn't have sufficient information on whereabouts of the 3,000 people. So firstly, they started to confirm it and contacted with each. They gave phone calls, conducted home visits, organized exchange events, and delivered their own newsletters. The emerging of IDPs, particularly from Fukushima, wrote about various types of new human rights issues such as the right to a healthy environment and discrimination related to nuclear radiation. Some of them were regarded by IDPs as human rights violation and brought into court. In the amidst of the disruption, the mental aspect tended to be left behind, or it was quite difficult for NGOs to tackle, but I really feel that NGOs made a great difference. I hope this role will be further recognized. Go ahead, Nobuyuki, we're still with you. Did you wrap up then? Sorry, I missed you, I just heard something on the line. Yeah, that's all right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. So interesting. I love the creative aspects and how you were able to support people who've been displaced through mental health awareness, but none of us particularly good at that. And it's such a Cecilia alluded to in her opening remarks as well as such an important role that spirituality and solidarity can play when people have faced major trauma. Thank you so much for that really, really interesting. I hope we can hear some more about it in the Q&A. So to hand over to our final speaker now, Christina. Welcome. Thanks for being with us. And Christina is going to give us a bit more of an overview of a much more regional context with lots going on in Latin America. So I hand over to you, Christina. Thank you so much. Thank you, Kate. And well, good afternoon, good evening, good morning, everyone. And thank you for the organizers of this important event and also for inviting me to be a speaker in this important topic. I'm from Panama very early here actually. So, so good morning for those in this part of the of the blog. So, here in lack in the lack in the Latin American region, the displacement situation is a very dynamic actually very dynamic and dynamical context there are IDPs and also mixed migration flows, all across the region involving refugees and migrants, irregular crossing have been increasing throughout the region in the past year, and most displacement groups are for people trying to reach the US seeking international protection, or a better future. And some of them stay in border areas where irregular economic activities are more accessible to them and some get deported along the route bringing people back to an IDP situation, while they are waiting for the opportunity to restart again, the route towards the north. So, in terms of displacement crisis and IDP situation, we have displacement triggered by disasters, or by conflict and violence in, in the north of Central America, Guatemala, Honduras and Salvador in Mexico, inside Colombia, of course in Venezuela, or in Haiti, as the most where the biggest within the region. IDP situation in the last region is not an isolated situation or a standalone situation, but a part of a very dynamic regional displacement crisis that ultimately affects the whole continent. And addressing this comprehensively is imperative to be successful in the response. The application of international international low human rights law, as it has been said by Cecilia is imperative. And in fact, faith based organization play a key role all across the region in welcoming displacement population in in Latin America. So as the scale of the displacement prices reaches historical propositions in this in this part of the region and President number of individuals are experiencing emotional distress and psychological problems. For displacement, whether due to conflict persecution discrimination, man made or natural disaster interpersonal violence economic crisis climate change or other human rights violations are affecting a lot of context in in Latin America may lead to severe experience of loss, including the loss of relatives and friends a sense of belonging control and autonomy and access to resources or education or economic opportunities. In recent years the focus of the mental health of psychosocial support programs to welcome the displaced population has moved from psychological symptoms and their treatment and prevention to collective and contextual elements of consequence of adversity. This includes the understanding of the importance of the collective reactions to adversity and of social cohesion social supports and identities in determining individual and communal well being in humanitarian and displacement context. It's also includes the activation of context specific multidisciplinary multidisciplinary support systems that build on existing strength of affected communities rather than limiting the intervention to provision of services to respond to the defeats created by the displacement crisis. So as a best practice highest strategies are driven by human rights approach, fully aligned with the global technical standard concessions affecting the ES guidelines for instance on mental health. In the context of for displacement in Latin America. Our mhps is intervention mental health and psychosocial support interventions and to create a safe space where people can build con truce constructive interpersonal relationships and begin to restore a sense of dignity justice control and autonomy. One of the best ways to promote mental health and well being is to strengthen existing relationships, networks and practices that communities used to cope and heal. As supported and safe environment is essential to recovery from impact of displacement, violence and emergency highest approaches is designed to preserve and improve people's psychological well being and ability to function emotionally, socially, cognitively, behaviorally, but also spiritually. So at highest we work with a wide variety of individuals and communities across across the region and across the globe coming from different cultural and religious backgrounds, and the compositions of our teams also reflects this great sense of faith identities. Our strategies are therefore not frame in a religious or faith based scope. However, we are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of spirituality in the life of some of those we seek to assist and of the potential value of exploring effective ways of engaging with local faith actors in humanitarian and displacement settings. Equally, however, there is a concern about how to address these issues in a way that do not threaten humanitarian principles of impartiality and neutrality, not risking heightening any existing religious tensions. While religion can be a powerful source of coping and resilience, it may also be used to promote harmful practices. Therefore, applying a human right lens to religion is also necessary. Religion beliefs or practices should not be used as a basis for waiving human rights standards and their mining protection or giving preferential access to services. There is therefore a need for weight strategies of local faith engagement in a manner fully mindful of the do no harm imperative. This involves developing a deep contextual understanding of the role of religion and religious actor in each humanitarian and displacement setting. So in some context, for example, HAYAS invites faith leaders for interfaith dialogues through group discussions, which includes issues such as how refugees or IDPs who need help are referred to them, what kind of issues they help with, the type of assistance faith leaders provide, the role that they play in assisting refugees or IDPs in this particular context, the way in which religion and spirituality affects the way of understanding and coping with their challenges, the challenges that refugees, IDPs are experiencing, the relationships between different faith groups in this area on this particular context or how faith leaders think that HAYAS or other actors or other agencies can actually better assist the needs of IDPs and refugees. So that would be for my part for the moment so thank you very much. Thank you. Wonderful. Well done. It's a huge region, a huge context to cover there. We gave you the hardest job. So appreciate that. We're just keeping really good time and I'm seeing some really interesting questions coming into the chat already. Some hoping colleagues have been able to follow them so that we can, William's ready to ask them to our panelists. I just wanted to capture very briefly a two-second reflection. All four of you have spoken as a core critical element about dignity, the importance of dignity, the importance of psychological support, of wellness, of mental wellness, and how faith leaders are really faith-based organisations and faith communities and an acceptance of just the knowledge of faith and of sensitivity towards faith and the role that spirituality can play when people have experienced trauma or when you're welcoming, your communities are being welcomed, you know, for host communities as well. So I think that's really interesting to hear that come out so strongly from all four of your presentations. It links again to what Cecilia said at the opening. So I'm hoping that some of the questions that are coming up in the chat and people are interested I think rightly in the challenges that we face as well, right? And there are many as well as the opportunities. So hopefully that can come into some of that really difficult work that you do in the Q&A and we can look at what we can learn from the challenges and how you've overcome them as well. So thank you. Valerie, William, I hand back over to you, Valerie, I think for you to hand over to William for the Q&A. Thank you so much, Kate, and as you said so much in there in the presentations we just heard and we have been closely monitoring the chat. So it's time to open up for questions and I will actually immediately hand over to William Shemani, the Global Protection Cluster Coordinator to guide us through this segment of exchanges of getting more in-depth on some aspects or some of the questions you have been sharing. So over to you, William, please. Valerie and colleagues, thank you so much for this much interesting session that comes extremely intuitive to many of us and extremely counter-intuitive to many others in the sector and the end of us. And I think the way the panelists today have presented the issues is most comforting in the sense of concrete ideas, concrete understanding of the challenges and concrete examples of how to overcome them. Now I have the easy and pleasurable role of not making conclusions nor answering questions, but play the role that we play in the cluster, which is bring a group of experts together and create that engagement. And I'm very happy that we have the panelists with us. So over the next 15 minutes or so I will use the following methodology. I'll ask a direct question to one of our panelists. But if any of the others want to interject or add on that question, do so. Otherwise, you will miss the train and I will start with another question with another analyst. So I will start with Father Emanuele. Your example and starting line of overnight, the community that you serve in has grown exponentially, what would take usually decades in terms of growth is quite powerful to understand the kind of challenges we face, you face, we face together. But where I want you to be specific with us is how do we actually work with communities where religion predominates over law, according to the beneficiaries according to the community you serve. And that might be quite intuitive for you and your role to deal with that reality. Are there any tips and guidance and concrete ideas you can give us for for other humanitarian actors on how do we deal with that reality. How do we transform what might initially come across as a black and white opposed opposed ideas to two synergies and actually an enabler for a humanitarian work. Father, over to you on this question. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. Unfortunately, it was a very unpleasant situation that in one overnight, the host community of 1.3 million said to have to host another 700,000 people in individuals who had left in one overnight lost everything, even the coughing even. So it was a challenge. I mean not. It was beyond a material challenge. It was an ethic, ethic and moral challenge. Thanks God, thanks God that the religious leaders in the host community I'm referring to the church to the masks in dog. They were so cooperative. They were so open, open mind open heard that in the sermons in all over the church, and in the mask that the doors were being opened to accommodate and facilitate the accommodation of those displaced people. The calls and initiative that the host community came to share came to share the food, the clothing that bedding with this huge amount of this place who were sleeping on the on the streets on the side of the streets and the trees and in the very hot summer in Iraq. So that I would say that the lesson we learned that despite there are people or groups, fundamental groups who are misusing the religion to attack and to practice violence and terror, but we have we can invest and we can have a religion as principles as values and religious leaders to build the bridge to be part of the solution not part of the problem. And this is our task as a face this organization that to build bridges between the community is not building walls. And this was a very successful experience here in Iraq. And for us, Cappie was a we are committed to that because since 28 years we are motivated bar by our motto, we to keep the hope alive, and to keep the hope alive is not just an emotional sermon that I gave in Sunday service, but I have to materialize a hope in a meaning that we can touch it. And also we are very much motivated in that era in August, starting August 14 and rises that we were recalling the Holy Family Jesus and the Holy Family, they were neither terrorists, nor tourists to Egypt. They were refugees who take refuge and say safety in, in, in Egypt as they were welcome there so we were coming and the church where it been opened mosques were being opened hurts were being opened. Thanks. Thanks very much. Father, especially for the for the last example as well that that put things in, in context, let me turn to you Shukri. Often, as asked in the chat box for humanitarian actors are were nervous about how do we engage with faith actors. Because we, most of the times do not come from the communities themselves we come as international players. And we are we, we have this click in our head that if we work close to faith actors. We might be seen as non neutral, non partial. And, and that's a reality. That's a reality that many of the humanitarian staff feel. So, how should we deal with that. When we know that the facts are not aligned to that theory, but that strong perception that that exists. Give us a couple of examples from your experience on how do we counter that narrative, and how do we assure programs and stuff that actually investing in collaboration with faith actors and acknowledging the humanitarian dimension of faith actors is a great asset for achieving the humanitarian outcomes that we that we want. Shukri over to you. Okay, okay, thank you, William. I think what you say this fact. Somalia context. Most of the international angels or national angels they walk through the, the local staffs. And we'll see that the staffs are working in a very deep role areas, for example, by the way, so for any part of Somalia. So what happened is usually that when you are doing the equipment, for example, you should also able to contextualize because in Somalia people are living according to the context. So what happened is when you're doing equipment, when you are doing your intervention was able to contextualize in relation to the definitely to the objective of the organization and to the donor perspectives, but to scale down your activities and everything to contextualize in it. And then when you're able to include the local staff who is able to understand the local dialects, who is able to interact with the community, who is able who is being trusted, who is well known, you will have, you know, automatic entry, a ticket, automatically a ticket to the community. Then on the other hand, the faith leaders now, you use them as an entry point. For example, there was a question that was asked by media specific activities initiatives, which is developed overcome xenophobia fear and discrimination. If I may make a reference for that is, for example, the faith leaders are used to create awareness through public address system. For example, in some parts of Somalia, even in Somalia, you will see that the vehicles, which are connected with the public address and they are able to provide breaches, especially the rights of the IDPs, especially on protection, on red, on, you know, PCA and all those things, and they go round, you know, you know, they go round educating the people on this. And then we also do centralization, especially during the prayer times, like at the gym, these are Friday sessions. So the faith leaders are also used to provide access sessions and then they will be able to give this information. And then the other most important thing is the capacity building. This is empowering the community. This is the most important things, especially for sustainability. Then you also form a kind of a lobby groups that advocates for the rights of these people who have been displaced or special people who have been, you know, the right to deny. So we create a kind of a lobby group, you train them, you empower them, whether it comes in return activities and all those things. And then there is other tasks you can also do is you form a special commission. For example, like by the way, there's a commission for IDPs. The government has formed this commission in some places. So there is an interaction between the IDPs and their commissions. And for example, the clusters, the protection, the CCCM and all those things is that kind. And then the other most important is how to do integration with this community. We have the foster community. So you need to provide the connection of the IDPs to the foster communities. By this we will be able to improve a kind of social, you know, interactions. This will improve, for example, intermarriages and we will be able to see that people are living, you know, very happily together. Yes, thank you. I don't know whether I was able to answer your question as needed. Absolutely. Thanks for also being concrete. I want to build on what you said and move to Christina for a moment. I mean, you said that religion could be a solution but must have a human rights lens. Fantastic sentence. Give us something concrete. How would that look like in reality? Yes, yes. Can I give the floor to Christina to try? Go ahead, Christina. Thank you, William. And thank you, Sufi. Maybe you also have more insights to the answer after my, so a concrete example. One of the key of the most important things when applying the human rights lens is to be clear that any assistance we provide, any program we deliver has to be in accordance with the law, with the human rights law, with the international humanitarian law if we're in a conflict situation, with international refugee law, etc. Coming to your question, the programs that we deliver at HIAS, as I was saying, are not based on faith or any religious beliefs. However, it's very important that we also consider the beliefs and the religion beliefs and the faith of the people we seek to assist. So for that matter, it's important that this combination of helping people to rebuild their life in dignity and have this sense of normality, which includes also the practice of their religion beliefs in the new place where they have been forcibly displaced, is also an important part of the rebuilding the life of those that has been displaced in a forcibly displaced in a new setting. There are many examples such as, for example, intercultural dialogues with different faith-based organizations. For example, in LACA, we work a lot in partnership with Catholic-based actors that are part of the safest spaces where they welcome a lot of displaced population all across the region. The coordination with all those actors and then the fostering of the humanitarian principles and the human rights law together with all the faith actors or non-faith actors, actually NGOs, local authorities, it's imperative to foster this sentence that we need to provide a human rights lens to the religion or the faith-based that we provide. I don't know if I'm answering your question if Suki has any more insights. Thanks. Thank you, Christina. Before I give the opportunity to Shukri, let me continue with you, Nobu Yuki. No, I think that's fine. The response to me is fine, thanks so much. Thank you. Nobu Yuki, let's turn to you. I think we're sometimes from international humanitarian organizations. We're very self-centered and we have a lot of passion to talk about the challenges we have to work. But with your experience and your organization experience, can you give us a sense of the types of challenges you face in operating in a humanitarian environment because you are a religious organization or a faith-based actor? How does it look from your viewpoint? What are the types of challenges you face and how can we help overcome them? Over to you. Thank you, William. One of the biggest challenges for ourselves is that both national and local governments or other many entities are basically reluctant to work with FBOs in Japan. And the principle of separation of church and state is also really strictly interpreted in Japan. So we are not often regarded as one of the members in the community for the humanitarian affairs. But in reality, of course, many FBOs working on the ground. So we hope to join a kind of common platform for promoting dialogue, promoting better preparation for better protection. Thanks. I want to open the opportunity to dwell a bit on the types of challenges you face and how can the humanitarian sphere support an overcoming to the rest of the panelists. Any ideas anyone would like to add? Go ahead, Father. Yeah, I would speak from our experience here in Iraq that unfortunately we lack any interface platform which is very much needed to address the challenge of such a diverse of faith that we had in Iraq. We have almost seven or eight ethnologies, different ethnologies communities. But unfortunately so far we lack such a platform. Therefore, I think I think it is very important for a faith based organization to advocate, to advocate for such a platform, interface platform, I mean, to train young people to have the programs for the young generation to from different backgrounds. We should not rely. I'm speaking from for Iraqi experience. We should not rely on the government governmental plans. Unfortunately, because such a country like Iraq. There is a supreme status for a certain religion and constitutionally and in legislation, the other religious faiths are considered as second, I just are discriminated on the level of load so therefore we should invest in in generation and informal education. This one, for example, activities we do have. We have five children centers, bringing children from different backgrounds, sharing their daily life together sharing activities, indoor activities classes and outdoor activities, celebrating the religious face for all together. We should invest in such activities and I mean inform education and advocate for an interface platform based on not to come in theological discussions. I don't know, but to agree on some kind of the living together in a mutual respect that unfortunately we we lack so far in the country of Iraq, I'm speaking. Thanks for the Christine over to you. I was I was just going to add that to overcome this challenges is key to have a deep understanding on the context, including the particularities of the religions beliefs in that particular context, and also to empower communities so that they are the ones that respond. And then whether this is a faith based organization or a non face or face organization that is actually responding to the situation. If you are responding with empower communities with a deep knowledge of the context they will be the ones writing the response so hence their faith particularities or challenges are not finding more. There you go. You are muted William. Yeah thanks Kate. Can you hear me now. Yes, you're all good. Okay, I think we're getting to the. Did you want to say something Kate. I mean, I put my hand up. I'm only being cheeky if we've got time. I mean, as moderator I just wanted to address a couple of questions in the chat and really just echo what my colleagues have said I mean, I am I very much overview of this globally. I'm not a field actor. I'm not even a person of faith myself I am. I am just very privileged to work in an organization that is very very open to really all beliefs and it and more open I have to say, in some ways than the secular humanitarian organizations and yours I work for for most of my career. I think just going to Nina's question in the chat, you know, but she asked two questions. There's a lot about specific challenges that we face because of our faith identity. I mean Islamic relief can answer that question offline, but there are lots of them, and lots of them. And there's probably lots of them for lots of other colleagues as well. They're kind of they're broadly similar to political challenges that NGOs and humanitarian organizations face in very very difficult crisis context full stop right they're not very much different really their political, the politically motivated. My second question, William and I think it comes to some of some of what my colleagues have been saying, and given, you know, different beliefs, and all beliefs and non you know how do we maintain neutrality well we do that in the same way as every humanitarian organization maintains neutrality. We're not different. Right, everybody has their beliefs every individual, every organization and can be aggressively dogmatic actually sometimes in the secular humanitarian sector, you know, this, some of the problems are that I think we need to get we need to get past that as humanitarian as a secular humanitarian to realize that our principles as another colleague posted in the chat, very much in line with a lot of faith messages of faith and messages of the religious doctrine. But the problem is the kind of interpretation when politics gets involved and that was just the final point I wanted to make when I was talking to Shukri and colleagues and helping them to prepare for this session. They were saying about how just last week or 10 days ago, they were sending me the global protection cluster updates from a recent displacement situation in Somalia which is being exacerbated by local religious leaders who are talking about, you know, tribal violence and encouraging violence right in that situation, we wouldn't mobilize the network of imams and send them in to try and help diffuse it because it would make things worse. It's about as Christina just said, being super aware of your context talking to the people who are leading in the context and responding as an NGO, a humanitarian actor on the back of that context and being really practical right. So I think I think that's that's what really inspires me about talking to people like for the manual and I'll be Christina Shukri and my colleagues, you know that they have this very practical knowledge that is slightly different, I think, and a slightly less fearful or perhaps less tied up in prejudice or past bad experiences and hopefully we're going some way to help move us forward together in thinking of different people we can engage with when it comes to dealing with these super tricky, heavily politicized situations. So thank you for that moment just to have a little word. Good, good, good. Thanks a lot. I think it's, it's probably one of these discussions that that can create a lot of questions create a lot of answers and can keep going for for a while. And I think that's the point of having these partnerships. The global protection cluster, definitely have very strong membership in the cluster both at national level, and as you've heard from from Valerie globally in our global structures and we find the collaboration. It's very solid on many fronts, including on one key priority for us in the cluster which is ensuring that protection responses locally driven, having faith based actors engaged in the way we do coordination of protection in the camps in the urban centers is extremely important. One, because it works. And two, because if we don't we're missing out on a huge opportunity of a structure and force for good that exists, and we, we can benefit from to to meet the humanitarian and protection. Let me close by ending back or to Valerie by a story of two religious persons who are together on a terrace overlooking a fantastic lake and praying and talking and walking and having a moment of peace for themselves. And one day one of these two religious persons one person was smoking a cigarette. And the other person saw and say, how are you smoking in this religious place and this, the smoker responded said well I asked my supervisor, and the supervisor agreed. For you to smoke. The person said, indeed, the supervisor agreed. And then this, this other person went and asked the supervisor, his supervisor to smoke and, and then of course he got a very negative answer what are you talking about smoking. And he came back and he said, well I just asked my supervisor and the answer was negative. He said well it depends on what did you ask. He said, what did I ask I asked if I can smoke while praying, and he said, see, it's the wrong question to ask. Go back and ask, can I pray while smoking. I think this approach of praying. If it works for smoking for something as bad as smoking, it definitely would work for something as good as a humanitarian action. So from where we stand. The relationship between a humanitarian action and religion seems obvious. It's powerful it reinforces each other. And I hope we in the cluster can build on sessions like this to prove that in practice on the ground. So thank you everyone and for all the questions and all the panelists and over back to you Valerie. Thank you so much William and I think through this anecdote you have really triggered some important thinking and how we take it forward and I again thanks to all panelists and I'm aware we could not answer all the questions in the chat but it helps us the task team, then to see how to move the topic also forward. What is of your interest, how to shape it so I just want to acknowledge also all participants. Before I give the floor to Rafael Marcus from highest, the senior vice president of highest to give us the closing remarks. I would like to share already the final evaluation link and it will come also in the chat. So that you take the few minutes before we get until the end of the session to reflect on the session. Really take is an opportunity after all this very rich discussion and examples, how we can be of use any recommendations to the task team or to the global protection cluster. So are the elements that you would like to follow up on or have more discussions and we are here available. So again, you will receive the link in the chat, but it is not yet the end and I would now like to give the floor to Rafael to give us some final reflections over to you please. Thank you Valerie thank you so much. And first of all, I really wanted to start to off by by taking each of the participants for sharing the wisdom. Thank you Valerie for leading a special thank you also to you and special thank you to all the members to see that he managed to marry for compelling keynote speech, Kate for the moderation and to global protection cluster coordinator big and she money for facilitating the discussion. A special thanks to all panel members for the input today and for the services you provide on a daily basis to relieve suffering of displaced persons and their host communities. In general, I found in the high level report on IDP is the issue of internally displaced people suffers from a lack of appreciation. In general, and more specifically in terms of the costs of in action when it comes to assisting IDPs. I am just back from a mission to undo us and it was impressive to hear the stories of multiple displacements and the fact that the internal displacement is often just the first step to a more prolonged displacement story within or outside So we need to step out of our game we know that and we are thankful for the report that pointed that out. And we have heard once again that it is not only IDP situation that are not yet fully acknowledged. It is also the faith sensitivity and the importance of it that needs to be enhanced, both within FBOs and non FBOs. We have heard today many competing examples of how important faith is in various ways, Cecilia pointed to the important agent of faith for people overcoming difficult situations and in building resilience. That is the personal strength drawn from faith. Father Archimedes Emmanuel elaborated on the important faith has for dignity and also how our work with different faith communities relates to the importance of ensuring rights for minorities in general. Mama spoke more to the operational importance in engaging with faith leaders and how it can be an important entry point if it is for work around COVID sensitization or GBB and other protection concerns. And no boy okay I spoke about the importance to provide IDPs with their religious needs, such as memorials and the ability to grief and importance to relate to the spiritual aspects of faith within the population of concern. Christina Garcia continued along this line relating to the importance of the faith background and the existing network often faith based for providing coping mechanisms but also the importance of the deep contextual understanding of the role of religion in settings to ensure that the do no harm principle remains paramount and is not compromised. The question that followed then turned to the many challenges William did not shy away of difficult questions regarding these challenges, and our speakers showed how elephant day and their organizations are in addressing these to sum up all this great input to see if we understand how faith can be an instrument to reach people and operational asset and providing fast and context sensitive assistance through networks and local capacities. And in my humble opinion, most importantly a professional aspect to be aware of when working with clients to ensure accountability and the right approach for needs assessment and eventually the provision of support. And I think, as we are virtually convening do to cover it, we saw this with the role of FBOs have played during the pandemic to stay and deliver and to really bring up the message of of of covered of relating to the people who were hit by covered, and also using the great network that they have. I want to add to all this immense power we as faith based organizations holding advocacy specifically an interfaith work as it is important to know that faith based organizations are as diverse of a community as non FBO agencies. Kate mentioned that a very important point we know how FBO and non FBOs are no different in their level of diversity when it comes to openness progressiveness and other characteristics. When we as an organization from different religious backgrounds talk together and advocate for change we are able to create more awareness, more impact, and this is why this session was so powerful and is so important. I want to close with one of the themes that I feel most compelled to lift up with my final sentence. It is of utmost importance that when providing assistance to you maintain community remains sensitive to the needs of IDPs, but in addition that we remain sensitive to the spiritual needs of the IDPs. Eventually, it is less important who gives the service FBO not it matters when we are giving services and how we remain attentive and accountable to the needs. So again, thank you so much for that really impressive session. I learned a lot. I hope all the participants learned a lot. I want to remind everyone again to fill out the evaluation form and wish all of you a good day a good evening and a good afternoon. Thank you very much, Rafael for those closing remarks. I think you brought it all very well together and really have been pointing the key aspects and also provided us a further guidance how how to take it forward. So colleagues we are at the end of our session. Again to all not only colleagues who presented but above all of those who join us from mainly deep field location so this is much appreciated. We will follow up as the Human Rights Engagement Task Team on the recommendations and questions that you provided. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to get from you more so please take few minutes to fill out the evaluation and indicate there what we can do more better to support you. And finally, I would also like to mention that if you are interested to know more about the Human Rights Engagement Tasking our work, what we do how it could be of use to you. We would be happy to connect bilaterally as you deemed useful and necessary. So thank you again, and have a good rest of the day. Speak to you soon.