A line-up of international speakers will join local NGOs and policy makers this week to discuss New Zealand's track record and future in refugee resettlement at the Looking Back & Moving Forward - Refugee Health and Wellbeing Conference at AUT University (November 18-21).

UNHCR regional representative for Australia and New Zealand Richard Towle will present the UN Refugee Agency's global perspective on refugee health issues and some of the challenges facing refugees settling in New Zealand.

New Zealand takes in 750 refugees each year through its quota system and Centre for Refugee Education manager Maria Hayward says reading through the case files of the refugees is a stark reminder of man's inhumanity to man.

"The stories contain details of such huge losses and tragedy; they make you cry every time. Meeting the refugees that come through the centre brings it home that these people are just the same as us, they feel the things we feel but they have been subjected to terrible things."

The Refugee Health and Wellbeing Conference is being held 21 years after the countries first major refugee conference and will look at New Zealand's track record in refugee resettlement and issues likely to impact on refugee resettlement in the future.

Keynote speakers at the event include Dr Eileen Pittaway, Director of the Centre for Refugee Research at the University of New South Wales, is discussing the risks of abuse that exist for women and girls even after resettlement.

The three-day conference also includes two panels featuring refugees who have settled in New Zealand, including speakers from Somalia, Burma, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, who will share insights into life as a refugee. The panel includes Masooma Mohebbie who was accepted into New Zealand after the Tampa rescue and has since built a life here.

Minister of Immigration Dr Jonathan Coleman will also address the conference.

Centre for Asian and Migrant Health Research co-ordinator Ruth DeSouza says this conference is an opportunity to take stock of New Zealand's contributions to refugee resettlement and ask what could be done better.

"It is significant I think that most New Zealanders want to be part of a society that treats refugees well and that they believe we are."

"The way you treat the most disadvantaged people is a real indicator of who and what you are."

AUT Centre for Refugee Education director Maria Hayward will jointly present "A refugee-centred approach to resettlement education: Power sharing, inclusivity and critical analysis."

Hayward says next week's conference is a chance to look at policy and practice but also to look at the human face of refugees in New Zealand and address misconceptions about the country's diverse refugee population.

AUT's Centre for Refugee Education has played a critical role in the resettlement of refugees and witnessed significant changes during these 20 years such as the broadening of the ethnicities coming to New Zealand under the quota programme.

"The demographic make-up of refugees has changed dramatically. In the early years there might have three different ethnicities in a group, now we often have as many as 12 and we need to be inclusive of that diversity."

Hayward says while AUT's six-week programme has developed significantly over the years the English language component is still at the heart of course.

"English language is critical to one's ability to settle and to become part of new communities. Of course refugees need English to gain employment or further study, but they also need it to make new friends, to access services and to understand what is happening in the welcoming communities."

Looking Back & Moving Forward: Refugee Health and Wellbeing Conference November 18-21, 2009