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The Minster Lovell Process: Stage One

Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East Peace Process

About the Minster Lovell Process >>

Project Stage One: May 2000 to December 2001

In 2000, in anticipation of an Israeli-PLO peace agreement under the Oslo process, this project was established to facilitate communication and substantive discussion about the Palestinian refugee issue across a wider circle of Arab and other concerned parties, in particular among the PLO, refugees and host countries.

The intention was to anticipate post-peace agreement refugee problems and explore their implications, through dialogue groups, scenario-building exercises and focused research papers.

The project employed the following elements:

  1. A series of workshops bringing together Arab and international players concerned with the refugee issue to identify potential problems and discuss responses;
  2. A set of study groups to be set up in the region, to facilitate dialogue between refugee communities and host governments in specific countries;
  3. The generation of country reports and other specialist papers, for the benefit of project participants and decision-makers to whom they have access;
  4. Umbrella events to focus regional attention on the refugee issue and review refugee concerns.

The groundwork for the project was laid at an exploratory workshop organized by the partner institutes, Chatham House (RIIA) and CLS, in Minster Lovell, Oxfordshire on 4-5 March 2000. As was discussed at that meeting, the Palestinian refugee problem was one of the 'final status issues' being negotiated between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the government of Israel, under the 'Oslo Process'.

When the project commenced, it seemed likely that the process would produce some form of agreement between the two parties, which would relegate some or all aspects of the refugee question for further negotiation. The constraints of the negotiating framework and the expectation of a partial Israeli-PLO peace agreement constituted the premises of the project at the outset.

The project was not intended to substitute for actual negotiations towards a resolution of the refugee issue but simply to facilitate a wider process of consultation and discussion on the issue and to anticipate problems. The project was directed jointly by the partner institutes from the UK, with institutions and specialists in the region engaged to host and manage the dialogue groups. All the discussions took place either off the record or under the Chatham House Rule.

Project Activity

  • 4-5 March 2000 - Exploratory Workshop: 'The Refugee issue in the Middle East Peace Process' (Minster Lovell)
    Report / Agenda
  • 22-24 July 2000 - Scenario-Building Exercise (Minster Lovell).
    Narrative Report / Agenda
  • 7-8 Oct 2000 - Specialist Workshop: 'Individual Rights and the Palestinian Question: An International Law Perspective', (Minster Lovell)
    Report / Agenda
  • 5-6 May 2001 - Stocktaking Conference: 'The Middle East Peace Process: Taking Stock', (Minster Lovell)
    Report / Agenda