2004, Nuffield College
Funded by the EU
civitas@nuffield.ox.ac.uk
(+44) 1865 278961  

The aim of the Civitas collective research project, based at the University of Oxford, is to assess how Palestinian refugee communities living in exile in the Middle East, Europe and further afield can build civic structures and mechanisms to enable better communication with their national representative the PLO and its institutions, the host country, the humanitarian agencies that serve them, and other refugee communities, both inside and outside of Palestine. It is almost entirely a volunteer project run by the communities themselves, and is facilitated by a small team who are co-ordinating the activities in order to carry forward the voices of the refugees to the relevant bodies, and bring the urgent needs of the Palestinian refugees to the attention of the international community. During a series of publicly convened debates, each community runs their own needs-assessment exercise where they determine for themselves which structures and mechanisms they might need – for example, by strengthening existing structures such as unions and associations, by regular newsletters, delegations, monthly meetings, twinning, committees, and other means of communication.