From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Benchmark 10 Establish the Conditions and Provide the Means for IDPs to Secure Durable Solutions
a formal presentation by the Minister of the Interior
and the Minister of Agriculture, alleged members of
paramilitary groups raided the land and set ablaze approximately
twelve acres of corn in Curvaradó. 68 In its
appeals to the government to provide for these communities’
security as ordered by the Constitutional Court,
the Afro-Colombian Solidarity Network reports that
such incidents have been recurring in these areas. The
network was especially concerned about intensified security
threats to community members after the government
had withdrawn members of the National Army’s
17th Brigade in Curvaradó. 69
Aiming to prevent further victimization of returnees as
a result of insecurity and violence, the government established
a new security body, the Integrated Center of
Intelligence for Land Restitution (Centro Integrado de
Inteligencia para la Restitución de Tierras, also known
as CI2-RT) within the Ministry of Defense. Additional
participants include the Office of the Vice President,
the Ministry of Justice and Interior, the Department of
Administrative Security (DAS), Social Action (Acción
Social), Incoder, and organizations representing victims
of violence. 70 The government sees this body as playing
an important role in offering preventative protection so
68 Tom Hayden, “Gangs Torch Land Returned to Afro-
Colombians ,” Colombia Reports, 21 March 2011 (http://
colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/15037-gangstorch-land-returned-to-afro-colombians.html).
69 Constitutional Court, Judgment No. 005 (2009).
Afro-Colombian Solidarity Network, “Open Letter to
President Santos on Partial Withdrawal of Security
Forces in Curvaradó,”14 April 2011 (www.ushrnetwork.
org/content/pressrelease/open-letter-president-santospartial-withdrawal-security-forces-curvarad%C3%B3).
70 Government of Colombia, Ministry of Defense,
“Gobierno Nacional lanza plan de seguridad para
beneficiarios de la restitución de tierras,” 16 March 2011
(www.mindefensa.gov.co/irj/go/km/docs/documents/
News/NoticiaGrandeMDN/50803ba7-0532-2e10-fe8ab0d4d44a3f0a.xml);
Centro Integrado de Inteligencia para
la Restitución de Tierras, Revista Gobierno, [no date] (www.
revistagobierno.com/portal/index.php?option=com_co
ntent&view=article&id=4648:centro-integrado-deinteligencia-para-la-restitucion-de-tierras&catid=6:minis
terios&Itemid=23).
141
that civilians do not find themselves in such danger that
they need to flee in the first place. 71
Internal displacement has occurred in various waves
in Iraq, in addition to outbound refugee flows, as is the
case with the other countries examined in this volume.
Indeed, roughly one in eleven Iraqis was internally
displaced as of 2010, for an estimated total of 2.8 million
IDPs in the country. Just over 1 million IDPs were
displaced before 2003 due to forced population movements
under the former Ba’ath government; around
190,000 were displaced by armed conflict following the
March 2003 invasion of Iraq; and 1.6 million were displaced
by sectarian conflict triggered by the bombing
of the Al-Askari shrine in Samarra in February 2006. 72
There has been little displacement since 2009 except in
the disputed northern areas. The government has given
some support to establishing conditions to enable durable
solutions for IDPs displaced since 2006, but the
vast majority of those IDPs have yet to realize such a
solution. Those displaced before 2003 have not been
registered; as IDMC notes, “there is no clear assessment
of the situation of this group of IDPs, which has been
71 Government of Colombia, Ministry of Defense, “Gobierno
Nacional lanza plan de seguridad para beneficiarios de la
restitución de tierras.”
72 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Representative
of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally
Displaced Persons, Walter Kälin—Addendum: Visit to
Iraq, A/HRC/16/43/Add.1, 16 February 2011 (www.
brookings.edu/projects/idp/rsg_info.aspx). According
to figures from the Kurdistan Regional Government for
the three northern governorates and the Iraqi Ministry of
Displacement and Migration for the fifteen central and
southern governorates, more than 1,680,000 IDPs (270,000
families) have been displaced throughout Iraq since 2006;
see IOM, Review of Displacement and Return in Iraq,
February 2011 (www.iomiraq.net). According to UNHCR,
however, there are 1.258 million IDPs in Iraq: UNHCR,
UNHCR Iraq Operation Monthly Statistical Update on
Return: July 2011 (www.iauiraq.org/documents/1497/
Return%20Update%20IRAQ%20JUL%202011.pdf). See
also IDMC, Iraq: Little New Displacement but around 2.8
Million Iraqis Remain Internally Displaced: A Profile of The
Internal Displacement Situation, 4 March 2010, pp. 8–9
(www.internal-displacement.org).