13. Inaugural and Valedictory Sessions 

Inaugural Session

On 1December 2007, the inaugural session at Swabhumi marked the beginning of an intense fifteen-day residential programme of The Fifth Winter course. The Fifteen-day intense programme began with a self-introduction by all the participants.
The day’s proceedings began with Paula Banerjee extending a warm welcome to all the participants, introducing the design of the course and also gave a brief outline of the Fourth Winter Course 2006. Samir Das spoke briefly on CRG, its activities and the background of the course. He also highlighted the two new modules that were introduced in the Fifth Winter Course. He discussed briefly the reasons for including a compulsory module on Research methodology and an optional module on Media and displacement and forced migration.  

Valedictory Session 

The valedictory session was held at Hotel Sojourn on 15 December 2007 at Hotel Sojourn. Paula Banerjee extended a warm welcome to the dignitaries, members and participants and requested Ranabir Samaddar to deliver the welcome address.
Ranabir Samaddar spoke about the proceedings of the fifteen-day course. He thanked the collaborators and extended a heartfelt gratitude for making the fifteen-day programme, the newly introduced media segment in particular a successful event. He spoke of the new themes that were discussed during the interactive sessions and classes.

Elizabeth Ferris in her remarks expressed that it was an enriching experience for her to interact with young and diverse minds working on displacement isuues and other issues. She congratulated the participants for their work and wished them all the best for their future. 
This was followed by remarks by course participants, namely, Tiina Kanninen, Anita Ghimire, Walid Kenzari, Sriram Haridass, Barbara Keller and Geetisha Dasgupta. They spoke highly about the intensity of the course. They also insisted that they would like to be associated with CRG in the near future. 
Chief Guest, Hon’ble Asko Numminen, His Excellency the Ambassador of Finland to India, awarded the participants certificates of appreciation. 
Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University congratulated the organizing committee and expressed IGNOU’s desire to collaborate with Calcutta Research Group in the near future.
Chief Guest, Hon’ble Asko Numminen, His Excellency the Ambassador of Finland to India appreciated the efforts of the organizing committee. He felt happy that the Government of Finland is supporting an endeavour that encourages young minds from across the world to discuss issues on forced migration.
Jeevan Thiagarajah, delivered the valedictory lecture on “The Growing IDP Crisis in the Southern World – The Critical Need to End Internal Displacements from a Rights and Development Perspective”.   The excerpts of his lecture are as follows:
Firstly we must understand the terminology, as for some who do not specialize in the area or work in the area, a difference is often not made between that of a ‘refugee’ and that of an ‘internally displaced person’ (IDP). While IDP refers to someone who has been forced to flee his/her home due to a threat to their life (be it man-made or natural disasters) and hence take up temporary status elsewhere within a state, the