From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement: Findings from 15 Countries
tance of having an independent national mechanism to
monitor the implementation of human rights and urged
the government to ensure establishment of a human
rights commission that “is vested with the competence
to receive and follow up complaints of violations of child
rights and is provided with sufficient human and financial
resources to ensure its independence and efficacy.” 78
There were no new developments at the time of writing.
The Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan (2005)
provided for the establishment of the Southern Sudan
Human Rights Commission (SSHRC) and the commission
is just beginning to address the issue of internal
displacement. But capacity is lacking. 79
Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in the
Sudan” (www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.
aspx?NewsID=9813&LangID=e); UN Committee on the
Rights of the Child, Consideration of reports submitted by
States parties under article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of
children in armed conflict: Concluding Observations: Sudan,
CRC/C/OPAC/SDN/CO/1, 6 October 2010, para. 9 (hereafter,
“UN Committee on the Rights of the Child: Concluding
Observations: Sudan”, (www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/
AfricaRegion/Pages/SDIndex.aspx).
78 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding
Observations: Sudan, para. 10.
79 The Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan, 2005,
Chapter IV, Articles 149, 150. See also, Government
of South Sudan, “Southern Sudan Human Rights
Commission” (www.goss-online.org/magnoliaPublic/
en/Independant-Commissions-and-Chambers/Human-
Rights-Commisions.html#structure). Also note that in
112
Conclusion
As is evident from this description, in a number of
countries national human rights institutions have
played an important role in raising awareness of internal
displacement, monitoring displacement situations and
returns, investigating individual complaints, advocating
for and advising the government on the drafting of
national policies to address internal displacement, and
monitoring and reporting on the implementation of national
policies and legislation. In particular, the NHRIs
of Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Kenya, Nepal and
Uganda stand out for their efforts to promote the rights
of IDPs in their countries. Interestingly, almost all of
their work with IDPs is funded by international sources,
raising the question of whether national governments
themselves should not be doing more to increase their
funding of NHRIs in order to support their engagement
with and invaluable contribution to improving national
responses to internal displacement.
November 2010, after the period covered by this survey,
the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement
commissioned a consultant to work with SSHRC to
determine its interest in monitoring IDP issues. The
assessment mission was carried out in conjunction with
IDMC, which provided training on the Guiding Principles
for staff of the commission. As a result of those initiatives,
the SSHRC established an IDP focal point within the
commission, mapped out a plan of work focusing on
internal displacement and agreed to send a staff member
to the Brookings-Bern Project’s course on IDP law in
Sanremo, Italy, in June 2011.