From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

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CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement: Findings from 15 Countries return efforts in its Peace, Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda, development actors have not yet fully engaged to support the plan. 3 An important way of demonstrating openness to the international community on IDP issues in particular is to invite the Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of IDPs (RSG on IDPs) to visit the country. The RSG on IDPs has visited all of the fifteen countries included in this report except for Myanmar and Pakistan and has made multiple visits to most countries. 4 As noted in the introduction to this study, the visits by the RSG have proven to be valuable in raising national awareness of internal displacement and the protection needs of IDPs; assessing the national and international responses and making recommendations for their improvement; and providing support to governments and to international actors to enable them to take concrete steps to protect the rights of IDPs. For instance, in the Central African Republic, Kenya and Yemen, the RSG has been invited to provide expertise in drafting those countries’ national laws or policies on internal displacement. Turkey is an example of significant change over time in the government’s openness to international cooperation on internal displacement. Throughout the 1990s, the government denied the existence of internal displacement and rebuffed all requests, including by the RSG, to engage on the issue. 5 However, when the government, under pressure from the European Union, finally agreed to open its doors to the RSG in 2002, that led to a change in national policy and, more belatedly, to engagement by international actors when RSG Deng called on the 3 Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Uganda: Returns Outpace Recovery Planning: A Profile of the Internal Displacement Situation, 19 August 2009 (www. internal-displacement.org). 4 For a list of all country missions undertaken by the RSG on IDPs, see the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (www.ohchr.org). 5 Bill Frelick and Virginia Hamilton, The Wall of Denial: Internal Displacement in Turkey (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Committee for Refugees, 1999). 168 government to explore areas of cooperation with international agencies. At the same time, Deng also called on the United Nations to expand its support to the government vis-à-vis IDPs. An especially important way of engaging with the international humanitarian community is through participation in the cluster system, which has become the standard way of organizing the international response to emergency situations. The UN cluster system provides a means through which international and local actors can share information on and coordinate their activities. Adopted in late 2005, the cluster approach was piloted in a handful of countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, in 2006; it now is applied to every new humanitarian emergency for which a UN humanitarian coordinator is appointed. The cluster approach has been applied in all of the countries surveyed by this study with the exception of Turkey, and in several cases (Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nepal, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and Yemen), it is still applied today. The clusters are intended to support national governments’ efforts to address humanitarian concerns; however, in practice, the level of national government involvement in the clusters has varied significantly. In one of the cases reviewed in this study, Kenya, the government ensured that it had a leadership role in the cluster system. In 2008 the clusters were reviewed and refocused to enable stronger Kenyan government leadership, and government ministries took over as the chairs of the clusters. In Uganda, leadership of the protection cluster has been handed over to the Ugandan Human Rights Commission. In the Central African Republic, the government, specifically the National Standing Committee (which is charged with relating to international actors), participates in protection cluster meetings. In Georgia, the cluster approach was introduced at the outbreak of new conflict in August 2008, with the government as co-chair; by the spring of 2009, the clusters had been replaced by government-run coordination mechanisms, in which the international community participated. A
Benchmark 12 Cooperation with International and Regional Organizations similar transformation took place, at government insistence, in Pakistan in spring 2011. In Nepal, the cluster approach was introduced in September 2008 following the displacement caused by the flooding of the Koshi River. The protection cluster, led by Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “still struggled to involve the government” during 2010. 6 The cluster approach also has been used in Myanmar, but the extent of government participation is unknown. In some cases, the government cooperates with UN peacekeeping operations to provide security to civilians, including IDPs, affected by violence. For example, a European Union peacekeeping mission with a UN civilian component, the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), was approved by the UN Security Council in 2007 for deployment to Chad and the Central African Republic. 7 In the Central African Republic, MINURCAT’s mandate included creat[ing] security conditions conducive to a voluntary secure and sustainable return of refugees and displaced persons and civilians in danger, by facilitating the provision of humanitarian assistance . . . and by creating favourable conditions for the reconstruction and economic and social development of those areas. 8 Efforts to promote reconciliation and address the causes of conflict are another area in which international support can be sought. For example, in Kenya, investigative commissions such as the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence (Waki Commission) and the Independent Review Commission on the General Elections Held in Kenya on 27 December 2007 (Kriegler Commission) were formed after the political crisis that engulfed Kenya after the 2007 disputed election results 6 IDMC, Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2010, p. 92, March 2011 (www. internal-displacement.org). 7 UN Security Council, Resolution 1778 (2007), S/ RES/1778(2007), 25 September 2007 (http://unbisnet. un.org). 8 Ibid. 169 and have employed international expertise. In addition, reform commissions including the Committee of Experts on Constitution Review; the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission; and the Task Force on Police Reforms also sought technical expertise from the international community. A government’s readiness to fulfill its responsibility to provide safe and unimpeded access of humanitarian actors to affected communities when the government alone cannot address the population’s needs often varies over time. The government of Sudan has often impeded humanitarian access, in word and more often in deed. For instance, on various occasions the government has expressed official commitment to allowing access while imposing bureaucratic delays and obstacles to, for example, the issuance of visas; on many other occasions, humanitarian workers from several agencies have been declared “persona non grata” and denied permission to operate in the country. The bureaucratic obstacles and access restrictions in Sri Lanka, particularly the severe limitations on humanitarian access to the North of the country, have greatly limited humanitarian aid. In 2008, the government ordered the withdrawal of agencies from the North. The government of the Central African Republic has historically given humanitarian organizations unimpeded access to displaced communities throughout the country, including in areas outside of state control; 9 in March 2009, however, it did temporarily deny access to areas controlled by armed groups in the north, accusing aid workers of providing indirect support to the groups. 10 9 IDMC, Central African Republic: New Displacement Due to Ongoing Conflict and Banditry, December 2009, (www. internal-displacement.org). 10 U.S. State Department, 2009 Human Rights Report: Central African Republic (www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/ af/135944.htm). RSG Kälin also stated in his 2010 report to the General Assembly (covering the major activities that he undertook from August 2009 to July 2010) that he “was also deeply concerned that humanitarian access to several regions in the country was severely restricted owing to security reasons. However, he was encouraged by the lifting of military restrictions on humanitarian access to areas outside and around Ndélé at the end of his visit.” Citation in UN General Assembly, Report of
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The Brookings Institution - London
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From Responsibility to Response: As
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CONTENTS Acronyms .................
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ACRONYMS AIHRC Afghanistan Independ
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FOREWORD It is with great pleasure
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Given the large num
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It is a central tenet of internatio
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legislation relevant to IDPs. Still
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amend existing ones, in line with t
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Background and Aims of the Study In
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displacement persists for several y
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operationalizing the responsibiliti
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Therefore, it is not surprising tha
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Azerbaijani, Chinese, French, Portu
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National Initiatives In Iraq, IOM p
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of the country. 62 In addition, six
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in French and Spanish depending on
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serves only to supplant and absolve
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CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approa
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Benchmark 1 Benchmark 1 Prevent Dis
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Benchmark 1 Prevent Displacement an
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Benchmark 2 Raise National Awarenes
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Conclusion Benchmark 2 Raise Nation
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Benchmark 3 Data Collection on Inte
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—Current location and location of
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its registration rolls intra-urban
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and profiling of three types of IDP
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the government of Afghanistan under
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Benchmark 4 Training on the Rights
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actions of DRC authorities and nong
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the provision of technical support
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Justice, National Cohesion and Cons
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February 2010; one outcome of the t
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Benchmark 5 Ensure a Legal Framewor
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Conclusion Benchmark 5 Ensure a Leg
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Benchmark 6 Develop a National Poli
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Benchmark 7 Designate an Institutio
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not necessarily influence such chan
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Institutional mandate and responsib
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this body include preparing “stra
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lead state agency may turn to other
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a division of functions being made
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Benchmark 8 Benchmark 8 Support NHR
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Benchmark 8 Support NHRIs to Integr
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Benchmark 9 Facilitate IDPs’ Part
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The process of participation is gen
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Georgia From Solidarity to Solution
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Kenya National Response to Internal
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Afghanistan Internal Displacement i
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Sri Lanka Gaps in the Government Re
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Domestic Financing Foreign financin
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This study seeks to shed light on h
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CHAPTER 3 Translating National Resp
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For each country case study, the ex
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5 6 Ensure a Legal Framework for Up
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9 9 a) Facilitate IDPs’ Participa
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12 Cooperate with International Com
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The Brookings Institution - London
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