A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

person’s choice, the government should provide physical security, humanitarian access,
transportation, and access to the law.
• The Government of Liberia should ensure that lack of access to documentation does not
prevent internally displaced persons from exercising the right to freedom of movement
within the country or right to leave the country. Further, the Government should facilitate
access to documentation.
• The Government of Liberia should ensure that internally displaced persons are able to enjoy
freely their right to participate fully and equally in public affairs and have access to all public
services. 123 Specifically, the government should assist internally displaced persons obtaining
or recovering all documents required to exercise their legal rights such as birth certificates,
passports, voting and military registration cards, marriage certificates, and other personal
identification. 124
Potential Implementation Strategy: Brookings Institution Policy Manual
The manual, entitled Protecting Internally Displaced Persons: A Manual for Law and Policymakers,
outlines strategies Liberia can implement to promote the rights of internally displaced persons. The
government may consider the following suggestions:
- “institute a universal and mandatory birth registration system;” 125
- “identify and, when necessary, modify documentation requirements in domestic legislation relevant
to the exercise of [internally displaced persons’] rights;” 126
- “permit [internally displaced persons] to vote in elections related to (1) the constituency from which
they were displaced, or (2) in the constituency in which they found refuge without unreasonable
restrictions and ensure that in the latter case they do not lose eligibility for humanitarian aid or other
benefits;” 127
- “inform voters, including [internally displaced persons], in a language they understand about the
electoral process and facilitate adequate and safe access to information about the political platforms of
the parties to the election.” 128
• The Government of Liberia should implement the recommendations of the Committee on
the Rights of the Child in its 2004 concluding observations relating to internally displaced
children, especially in regard to articles 7 and 22 specifically, the Government of Liberia
should:
o Strengthen its efforts to provide adequate assistance to the internally
displaced children, including access to food, education, and health services
and to support their return and reintegration into their communities;
o Prevent sexual assaults and other exploitation of refugee and internally
displaced children, with particular attention to girls, and provide for their
rehabilitation and reintegration into society; and
o Prevent forcible conscription of refugee and internally displaced children
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