From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement: Findings from 15 Countries
reporting on IDP issues since at least 2004, as evidenced
by its 2004 report to Parliament (the earliest such report
available on the office’s website), which included a chapter
on IDPs and refugees. 26 Since then, the office has
continued to report on IDP issues; in fact, it has intensified
its efforts in recent years, including by submitting
to Parliament in 2010 a special report devoted entirely
to internal displacement. 27 Yet, as the public defender
himself has pointed out, the office’s efforts to monitor
and report on internal displacement have been limited
nonetheless by the number and diversity of IDPs and
the limited capacity of the office. 28
Strengthening the capacity of the Office of the Public
Defender to address issues related to internal displacement
was the specific aim of a 2010 project entitled
Support to Public Defender’s (Ombudsman’s) Office
in Solving the Problems Related to IDPs and Persons
Affected by Conflict, which was funded by the Council
of Europe’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. Six
new staff members were hired, including five monitors
stationed in regional offices. Following training on
the Guiding Principles and IDP issues provided by the
Council of Europe together with UNHCR and other
partners, the monitors began to conduct regular visits
to IDP collective centers and other IDP settlements,
undertaking a survey of 10 percent of IDP households
in the collective settlements. They also began to provide
on-site legal consultations and, in cooperation with the
regional offices of the Ministry of Internally Displaced
Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation
and Refugees (previously known as the Ministry of
Refugees and Accommodation), to work to resolve specific
problems and rights issues identified. The Office
26 Public Defender of Georgia, Report on Conditions of Human
Rights in Georgia in 2004, pp. 66–73 (www.ombudsman.
ge/files/downloads/en/szounjmrncjpwcvdgasn.pdf).
27 For a summary of how and the extent to which IDP
issues have been addressed in the reports of the Public
Defender’s Office, see the Georgia case study in chapter 2
of this volume.
28 Public Defender of Georgia, The Situation of Human
Rights and Freedoms in Georgia: Second Half of 2009, p.
174 (www.ombudsman.ge).
104
of the Public Defender prepared a special report on the
human rights of IDPs based on data provided by monitors
from January to June 2010 and an analysis of existing
national legislation, policies and programs, in which
it made a number of recommendations for improving
the national response. 29 In reports addressing IDP
issues, the Public Defender typically makes reference to
the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. 30
The Office of the Public Defender also has become
increasingly active, especially since the second half of
2010, in advocating for IDP rights. It has issued several
public statements and press releases specifically on IDP
issues, in particular concerning the process for privatizing
and rehabilitating collective centers and related
concerns about the eviction of IDPs. 31 The office’s IDP
project team also has undertaken a survey on the situation
of IDPs in private accommodations, thereby helping
to address an important gap in data collection. 32
As of January 2011, the IDP project in the Office of
the Public Defender was co-funded by the Council of
Europe, together with UNHCR. 33 The IDP project team
thus relies, at present, entirely on extra-budgetary funds
29 Public Defender of Georgia, Report on the Human Rights
Situation of Internally Displaced Persons and Conflict-
Affected Individuals in Georgia (September 2010),
pp. 5–7 (www.ombudsman.ge/files/downloads/en/
njyyccudreysvwktqszj.pdf).
30 See, for example, See, for example, Public Defender
of Georgia, Human Rights in Georgia: Report of the
Public Defender of Georgia: Second Half of 2006, 2007,
p. 149; Public Defender of Georgia, Report of the Public
Defender of Georgia: The Situation of Human Rights and
Freedoms in Georgia: Second Half of 2009, 2010, p. 177;
both available at Public Defender of Georgia, “Reports,”
(www.ombudsman.ge/index.php?page=21&lang=1); and
Public Defender of Georgia, Report on the Human Rights
Situation of Internally Displaced Persons and Conflict-
Affected Individuals in Georgia..
31 See, for example, “Statement of Public Defender of Georgia
Regarding Eviction of Internally Displaced Persons,” 17
August 2010; and “Statement of the Public Defender,” 21
January 2011 (www.ombudsman.ge).
32 See also the Georgia case study in chapter 2 of this volume.
33 Ibid.