TEHRAN (IRIB) -- The UN Refugee Agency and the International Studies Journal (ISJ) are organizing a research workshop on protecting refugees in the international community and in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The workshop will be held in Tehran on February 3rd and 4th, 2007, at Iranian Center for International Ceremonies (ICIC), Niavaran.

Participants include graduate students and refugee law practitioners from Iran as well as Europe and Canada.

Mehdi Zakerian, ISJ editor-in-chief, and Sten Bronee, UNHCR representative for the Islamic Republic of Iran, will make the opening speeches.

Ahmad Hosseini, director general of the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Affairs (BAFIA) will give a presentation on the refugee policies of Islamic Republic of Iran.

Other key speakers include Ayatollah Amid Zanjani, rector of Tehran University, Rajaee Khorasani, former ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, and professors from Allameh Tabatabaie university, Islamic Azad University and Tehr an University.

The program will cover international refugee law, other fields of international public law pertaining to refugee protection and Iranian initiatives to protect refugees.

The workshop aims to discuss how further to promote refugee protection and self-help.

UNHCR's Sten Bronee welcomed the initiative and support by both the ISJ and BAFIA to convene this workshop.