By Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai University
With support from Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, hosted a Policy Dialogue Workshop on Forced Displacement in Southeast Asia from 19-21 October 2026. The workshop brought together policy researchers, civil society representatives, human rights advocates, and practitioners to explore pathways towards durable, rights-respecting protection through learning and exchanges across the region.
Against a backdrop of changing geopolitics and debates over the future of the global refugee protection regime, the workshop centered a critical question: how can protection frameworks better reflect the realities, experiences, and priorities of displaced communities and host societies in Southeast Asia? Its agenda connected geopolitics, localization, and regional cooperation with a Global South-led rethinking of international protection, drawing on the IDRC Research Chairs’ Declaration on the Foundations and Renewal of International Protection for Forcibly Displaced Populations.
With many host states in the region remaining outside the 1951 Refugee Convention, the workshop examined both the possibilities and limitations of existing administrative arrangements and locally grounded practices. Country-focused sessions on Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines connected cross-border refugee protection with internal displacement, highlighting the need to move beyond fragmented, temporary responses towards more accountable and lasting frameworks.
Placing policy brief writing and advocacy at the center of its program, the workshop aimed to translate research and frontline experience into actionable recommendations, while strengthening a transnational network committed to shaping protection from a Global South perspective.
Source: https://rcsd.soc.cmu.ac.th/news-announcements/rethinking-protection-for-forcibly-displaced-people-in-southeast-asia/. Archived at https://perma.cc/K376-73V2
A Facebook post on the workshop is accessible here, archived here.
