From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement: Findings from 15 Countries
secure a durable solution to their displacement, but it
has taken some steps to stabilize conflict areas and work
toward the return of the displaced.
Most IDPs in the DRC have been displaced multiple
times, and aid workers have difficulty providing assistance
in many instances because of insecurity and logistical
constraints. In his 2008 mission report, RSG Walter
Kälin called attention to the fact that houses had been
destroyed; that infrastructure, including schools, was
lacking in the areas of return; and that female-headed
households were especially vulnerable. Many of the
women he met during his mission, particularly returning
IDPs, said they were vulnerable to acts of violence,
including rape, in return areas. 84 Returns have provoked
land disputes among various ethnic groups and between
returnees and those occupying their land, who in many
instances have also been displaced. 85 However, in spite
of the difficulties and the fact that returnees often experience
renewed displacement, large numbers of IDPs
have returned to their communities. For example, in
2009, 1 million returnees were reported, half of them
in North Kivu. That constituted the highest number of
returns in Africa for that year and the second-highest
number in the world, after returns in Pakistan. 86
Notably, in June 2009 the prime minister of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo launched the
Stabilization and Reconstruction Plan for War-Affected
Areas (STAREC), funded and supported by the United
Nations, for the stabilization and rebuilding of former
84 UN Human Rights Council, Report submitted by the
Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human
Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, Walter Kälin—
Addendum—Mission to the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, A/HRC/8/6/Add.3, 16 May 2008, para. 60 (http://
ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?m=71).
85 International Crisis Group, Congo: Four Priorities for
Sustainable Peace in Ituri, Crisis Group Africa Report No.
140, 13 May 2008 pp. 9–10 (www.crisisgroup.org).
86 IDMC, Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends
and Developments in 2009, p. 17; IDMC, Democratic
Republic of the Congo: Over 2.1Million IDPs in the Context
of Deteriorating Humanitarian Conditions, February 2010,
p. 4 (www.internal-displacement.org).
144
conflict zones in the east of the country, including
through the return, reintegration and recovery of IDPs
and refugees. 87 The priorities outlined in STAREC fall
into three main categories: security and restoration of
state authority; humanitarian and social assistance; and
economic recovery. 88
However, according to the prime minister in 2009,
STAREC had been stymied “due to a number of constraints,
such as the armed confrontations between
the National Congress for the Defence of the People
(CNDP) and the Armed Forces of the Democratic
Republic of Congo (FARDC).” 89 Indeed, a range of triggers
of conflict and violence—such as social and economic
marginalization, inter-ethnic tensions and land
and property disputes—have also impeded progress on
IDP and refugee returns. Funding has also been identified
as a major limitation to STAREC’s ability to provide
durable solutions for IDPs. 90
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the
DRC, created in 2002 by the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement, was constitutionalized in the Transitional
Constitution (2003) as a means to achieve national
unity, including through the provision of compensation
to victims. However, the commission’s work has been
limited; reportedly it is unable to conduct investigations
87 GoDRC, Programme de Stabilisation et de Reconstruction
des Zones Sortant des Conflits Armés: STAREC, June
2009; UNDP, “Trust Fund Factsheet: DRC Stabilization
and Recovery” (http://mdtf.undp.org/factsheet/fund/
CRF00); Stabilization and Recovery Funding Facility for
the Democratic Republic of Congo: Terms of Reference, final
version, 5 November 2009 (http://monusco.unmissions.
org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=E8IWO6fJjIY%3D&tabid=
4516&mid=4889).
88 See UN Peacebuilding Fund, “Priority Plan for the
Democratic Republic of Congo,” (http://monusco.
unmissions.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=YWXss5SIqH8
=&tabid=4521&mid=4888.
89 MONUC, “UN Supports Revised Stabilization and
Reconstruction Plan for Eastern DRC,” 24 February 2009
(http://reliefweb.int/node/298860).
90 UN Peacebuilding Fund, “Priority Plan for the Democratic
Republic of Congo.”