From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Benchmark 10 Establish the Conditions and Provide the Means for IDPs to Secure Durable Solutions
rehabilitation, reconstruction and socialization for the
displaced people.” 13
Efforts to promote reconciliation and to address the
root causes of the conflict, including through establishing
related commissions, have largely stalled. The
government has, with assistance from the UN Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR),
sought to establish a truth and reconciliation commission,
for which a provision exists in both the Interim
Constitution of Nepal (2007) and the CPA. 14 However,
the status of the draft bill establishing the commission
was unclear at the time of writing and had received criticism
from OHCHR and international human rights organizations
for falling short of international standards. 15
The CPA also includes a provision for the establishment
of a National Peace and Rehabilitation Commission, the
work of which is to include “rehabilitation activities for
13 Under provisions of the CPA, the NHRC monitors rights
including the right to life; the right to individual dignity
and freedom of movement (which includes a subsection
on IDPs); economic and social rights; the right to health;
the right to property; the rights of women; and the rights of
children. NHRC, Three-Year Comprehensive Peace Accord
(CPA), Summary Report 2006–2009, pp. 36– 37 (www.
nhrcnepal.org/publication/doc/reports/3-year_CPA.pdf).
14 CPA, Article 5.2.5: “Both sides agree to constitute a Highlevel
Truth and Reconciliation Commission through
mutual agreement in order to investigate truth about those
who have seriously violated human rights and those who
were involved in crimes against humanity in course of
the war and to create an environment for reconciliation
in the society.” Article 33(S) of the Interim Constitution
provides for the constitution of “a high-level Truth and
Reconciliation Commission to investigate the truth about
those persons involved in serious violations of human
rights and crimes against humanity committed during
the course of conflict, and to create an atmosphere of
reconciliation in the society.”
15 See further: Human Rights Watch, “Nepal: Send Human
Rights Bills to Parliament,” 29 January 2009 (/www.hrw.
org/news/2009/01/29/nepal-send-human-rights-billsparliament);
OHCHR, “Public consultations on TRC Bill
must not be cut short - OHCHR-Nepal,” 4 January 2001
(http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/reliefweb_
pdf/node-253744.pdf).
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the victims of conflict and [the] displaced.” 16 However,
despite the advocacy conducted by the National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC) of Nepal to the government
of Nepal to create such a commission, there [has
been no] effort in order to set up this commission” due
to the “lack of will power of the political parties,” according
to the NHRC. 17
In situations of displacement due to disasters, the government
is responsible for providing immediate support
to IDPs and accordingly coordinates with national
and international organizations. It is reported that most
IDPs uprooted by natural disasters—primarily floods
and landslides—are able to return to their places of
origin but that long-term livelihood programs and subsistence
assistance are often lacking in return areas. 18
In Uganda, where there were some 1.8 million IDPs at
the peak of the conflict between the government and
the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the signing of
the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in 2006 opened
up meaningful possibilities for return, which gained significant
momentum in 2008. In 2004, in the National
Policy for Internally Displaced Persons, the government
had already committed itself to securing durable solutions
to displacement. 19
Following the cessation of hostilities, the government
conducted demining campaigns in return areas and
introduced guidelines on the return process and camp
phase-out operations. 20 The government’s Peace,
16 CPA, Article 5.2.4.
17 NHRC, Three-Year Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA),
Summary Report 2006–2009, pp. 26–27.
18 Nepal Institute for Peace, E-Bulletin on IDPs in Nepal, June
2009, vol. 1, no. 1 (www.idps-nepal.org/images/e-bulletin/
e-bulletin-June.pdf).
19 Government of Uganda, Office of the Prime Minister,
Department of Disaster Preparedness and Refugees,
National Policy for Internally Displaced Persons, August
2004, § 3.4
20 For a discussion of the camp closure process, see further,
Michelle Berg, “A Sort of Homecoming: Local Integration
in Northern Uganda,” in Resolving Internal Displacement:
Prospects for Local Integration, edited by Elizabeth Ferris,