From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Benchmark 10 Establish the Conditions and Provide the Means for IDPs to Secure Durable Solutions
Benchmark 10
Establish the Conditions and Provide
the Means for IDPs to Secure Durable
Solutions
Is the government working—or has it
worked—to establish conditions enabling
IDPs to secure a durable solution to
displacement?
A durable solution is achieved when internally displaced
persons no longer have any specific assistance and protection
needs linked to their displacement and they can
enjoy their human rights without discrimination based
on their displacement. It can be achieved through the
following:
—sustainable reintegration in the place of
origin (hereafter referred to as “return”)
—sustainable local integration in areas where
internally displaced persons take refuge (local
integration)
—sustainable integration in another part of the
country (settlement elsewhere in the country).
As articulated in Principle 28 of the Guiding Principles on
Internal Displacement, IDPs have a right to a durable solution
and national authorities bear “the primary duty and responsibility
to establish conditions, as well as provide the means”
that allow IDPs to achieve durable solutions. 1 Supporting
durable solutions is a gradual process that usually requires
the additional involvement of a number of actors, including
local authorities as well as humanitarian and development
agencies, to identify the right strategies to assist and involve
IDPs. Securing durable solutions is in the state’s best interest.
Leaving IDPs in a continuing state of marginalization without
the prospect of a durable solution could impede long-term
stability, recovery and reconstruction in post-crisis countries.
1 Principle 28(1), Section V, Guiding Principles on Internal
Displacement.
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While the resolution of a conflict—for example, by the
signing of a peace agreement—creates opportunities to
find durable solutions, it usually is not sufficient in itself
to create a durable solution. Although no systematic
data are available, it seems that the longer displacement
lasts, the more difficult and the more unlikely return to
the place of origin becomes. Most national authorities
want IDPs to return to their communities once the issue
that provoked their displacement is resolved, unless, of
course, those authorities condoned or even caused the
displacement to achieve political or military objectives.
For the most part, IDPs, too, hope to be able to return
home if certain conditions are in place. Indeed, they may
insist on return as the only just remedy for their displacement
while also insisting on support for their local
integration in the interim. In many instances in which
return is the preferred option, national authorities are
loath to assist in the local integration of the displaced
for fear of sending the message that their displacement
is permanent rather than temporary.
Displacement changes individuals and societies, sometimes
irreversibly. Especially in protracted situations,
concepts of “home” can change, especially among those
who are born into displacement. In addition, the issue of
when and how displacement is resolved is usually highly
politicized, with governments or other actors favoring
certain solutions over others for their own reasons, irrespective
of the preferences of the displaced.
In the case of natural disasters, solutions are in some
respects more straightforward but in other regards more
complex. Unlike in situations of displacement due to
conflict, political violence or human rights violations, the
possibility of return home after a disaster does not necessarily
evoke fear of ongoing persecution, violence or retribution.
However, the risk of a recurrence of disaster can
be just as powerful an obstacle to return. Moreover, the
destruction caused by a disaster can alter the landscape
to such an extent that there no longer is any land—or any
safe, habitable land—to which IDPs can return.
The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement—
which reflect international law, international