Title of the Activity: Paralegal Training on Handling and Counselling Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Target Date/s:Target Venue: Insular Davao????????Target No. of Participants:Target Participants: Lawyers, Paralegals and Legal AidMethodologies: Participatory Learning Approaches

I. Rationale/NarrativeEvery individual has its own fundamental human rights. It is also true with the IDPs who are persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2008).Accordingly, IDPs are very vulnerable with their rights, safety, and shelter. As such they face problems like lack of shelter and problems related to camps, loss of property and access to livelihoods, discrimination because of being displaced, lack of identity cards and documents, lack of access to services, and most especially to lack of political rights. In addition, they are also at higher risk of being trafficked, become victims of gender-based violence, being excluded from educational services and the right to political participation, and other issues which they are being unprotected.In the Philippines and in Mindanao particularly, wherein most of the IDPs are those people who are affected by the armed and religious conflicts in Mindanao and others as victims of natural disasters. Wherein most of them are confronted with poverty, limited access to basic services, and a high uncertainty of development. This effects have really drawn the IDPs to being marginalized and being undermined with their rights caused by the conflict and natural disasters.Thus, the importance of having a training to lawyers, paralegals and legal aids is one of the international community steps to close out the mishandlings and gaps of IDPs in the context of giving them legal aid as form of protection. In this juncture, it will hopefully enable legal practitioners to equipped the proper way of handling the IDPs especially in giving them sound advice and assistance.