From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement: Findings from 15 Countries
none of the agricultural loans envisaged as part of the
returnee assistance had been disbursed. 6 The Ministry
of Peace and Reconstruction had spent only 42 percent
of the NPTF funds. 7 Of the nineteen districts that the
working group surveyed throughout Nepal, only three
reported having been allocated sufficient funds to meet
the needs of registered IDPs. The assistance is especially
vital as employment opportunities are lacking for many
IDPs and returnees. 8
Nearly half of the returnees interviewed by the Nepal
IDP Working Group reported serious land, housing and
property problems. More than 10,000 cases for compensation
for lost or damaged property were recorded
by a task force formed by the Ministry of Peace and
Reconstruction in 2007. However, by the end of 2009,
only 2,000 families had received support to reconstruct
or repair their houses. 9 It is widely reported that IDPs
with non-Maoist political affiliations have been the
most likely not to recover land and property or not to
have their land returned unconditionally. 10
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)
reports that lack of capacity and poor coordination have
hindered the limited number of government-initiated
resettlement initiatives. A pilot resettlement project
6 Nepal Peace Trust Fund, Conflict-Induced Internal
Displacement in Nepal: Four Monthly Progress Report—
Fourth Report (16 May–15 September, 2008), 15
November 2008, p. 24, cited in IDMC, Overview: Failed
Implementation of IDP Policy Leaves Many Unassisted, p. 5.
7 Government of Nepal, Peace Fund Secretariat, Ministry of
Peace and Reconstruction, Nepal Peace Trust Fund Four-
Monthly Progress Report: Fifth Report (16 Sep 2008 – 15
Jan 2009), 28 February 2009, cited in Nepal IDP Working
Group, Distant from Durable Solutions, p. 36.
8 IDMC, Overview: Nepal, pp. 1, 7; Nepal IDP Working
Group, Distant from Durable Solutions, pp.10, 36-37.
9 Nepal Peace Trust Fund, Four Monthly Progress Report:
Seventh Report (Mid-May–Mid-September 2009), 15
November 2009, cited in IDMC, Overview: Nepal, p. 6.
10 Nepal IDP Working Group, Distant from Durable
Solutions, pp. 27–29; Carter Center, The Carter Center
International Observation Mission in Nepal: First Interim
Report, 26 August 2009, p. 6.
132
was under way in Kanchanpur district as of early 2010,
but the four-year project has focused only on housing
construction, with no livelihood or basic service
components. 11
Durable solutions for IDPs in Nepal are also hindered
by ongoing social tension and discrimination, especially
manifest in relations between lower castes and minority
ethnic groups. According to the Nepal IDP Working
Group in 2009, almost 40 percent of surveyed returnees
reported discrimination due to tension with the rest of
the community. Dalits and indigenous groups such as
the Tharus, already marginalized in Nepal’s caste system,
were deliberately targeted by both Maoists and government
forces, and many fled their homes during the conflict.
Discrimination is also attributable in many instances
to the stigma attached to being an IDP in Nepalese society;
many IDPs prefer not to be known as IDPs. 12
Under the CPA, both the government and the
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) committed themselves
to respecting a permanent cease-fire and to giving
priority to respecting a broad spectrum of human
rights. As mandated by the CPA, the National Human
Rights Commission of Nepal (NHRC) monitors both
parties’ upholding of their human rights commitments
under the agreement, investigates human rights violations
and issues recommendations (see Benchmark 8).
In its three-year review of the CPA, the NHRC found
some improvement in the parties’ human rights record
but noted that they were not in compliance with all of
their obligations, including by allowing impunity for
human rights violators. The NHRC also found that lack
of access to property, housing and land hinders some
from returning, and it recommended that the government
formulate a policy to address the “long-term
11 IDMC, Overview: Nepal, p. 8.
12 Social Inclusion Research Fund, “Social Impact of
Armed Conflict in Nepal: Cause and Impact,” 6 May
2009, pp. 27–28 (www.nrc.ch/8025708F004BC2FE/
postSearch?createdocument); Nepal IDP Working Group,
Distant from Durable Solutions, pp. 23 and 28.