From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Georgia From Solidarity to Solutions: The Government Response to Internal Displacement in Georgia
awareness-raising efforts is the issue of IDPs’ “right to
return.” Advocacy of the right to return is a common
refrain in virtually every government statement, domestic
or international, on IDP issues. While the government’s
approach to durable solutions to displacement
has broadened significantly in recent years to include
alternative solutions (see Benchmarks 5 and 10), the
focus of government advocacy efforts remains on
return. Indeed, every year since 2008 the government of
Georgia has sponsored in the UN General Assembly a
controversial, but increasingly supported, resolution on
the “right to return” of IDPs from Abkhazia and South
Ossetia. 32 Moreover, President Saakashvili personally
remains a vocal advocate of IDPs’ right to return. 33
The government’s acknowledgement of internal displacement
and its responsibility for addressing it is
reflected in the national legal and policy framework.
Most notably, in 1996 the government adopted the Law
of Georgia on Forcibly Displaced Persons–Persecuted
Persons; indeed, Georgia counts among the first
countries in the world in adopting national legislation
32 For example, UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution
65/287 of 29 June 2011 on the status of internally
displaced persons and refugees from Abkhazia, Georgia,
and the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, Georgia; UNGA
Resolution 64/296 of 7 September 2010; UNGA Resolution
63/307 of 9 September 2009; UNGA Resolution 62/249 of
15 May 2008. That these resolutions have been adopted
only with numerous abstentions illustrates the highly
politicized nature of the issue, in particular regarding
Georgia’s relations with Russia, which has had significant
external influence on the conflicts and efforts to resolve
them.
33 See, for example, President Saakashvili’s statement to
the OSCE Summit in Astana, 1 December 2010 (http://
www.president.gov.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_
id=228&info_id=5921); and Daily News Online,
“Saakashvili: UN Vote Russia’s Shame and Diplomatic
Failure,” 10 September 2009 (www.civil.ge/eng/article.
php?id=21448), referring to a televised statement by
President Saakashvili in which he welcomed UN General
Assembly Resolution 63/307 recognizing the right of
displaced persons to return to Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, by describing this as a major diplomatic victory for
Georgia and diplomatic defeat for the Russian Federation.
185
specifically addressing internal displacement (see
Benchmark 5 below). Moreover, as mentioned above,
in 2007, the government adopted the State Strategy
on Internally Displaced Persons (see Benchmark 6,
below). Especially noteworthy for this study, the current
government minister responsible for IDPs (see
Benchmark 7), along with senior officials in the ministry,
has made a point of publicizing that all senior officials
in the ministry have been provided with copies
of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
and of the guidance document on national responsibility,
Addressing Internal Displacement: A Framework
for National Responsibility, noting that “this has helped
ensure that the humanitarian response has met internationally
recognized standards.” 34 It is noteworthy that
Amnesty International also refers to the Framework for
National Responsibility and specifically has reiterated
the Framework’s twelve benchmarks as “valuable criteria
for assessing the realization of human rights of internally
displaced persons” and for measuring government
accountability. 35
The government of Georgia attaches significant national
priority to the issue of conflict-induced internal
displacement and indeed demonstrates strong solidarity
with IDPs. In so doing, government rhetoric and
response historically has focused almost exclusively on
pressing for IDPs’ right to return. While advocacy of that
right is important and is in line with the responsibility
34 Iulia Kharashvili, Ilya Kharashvili, and Koba Subeliani,
“Experience of the Guiding Principles in Georgia,”
Forced Migration Review, Special Issue on 10 Years of the
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, December
2008, pp.16–17. Koba Subeliani has been the Minister
for Refugees and Accommodation since late 2008 to
the present and previously served in this same capacity
from 2007 to early 2008. In the period between his two
ministerial appointments, he was a member of parliament
and coordinator of the Georgian Parliament’s IDP group;
Iulia [who also goes by, and has published under, the name
“Julia”] Kharashvili was an adviser on IDP issues in the
ministry from 2006 to February 2011.
35 Amnesty International, “Government Accountability,” In
the Waiting Room: Internally Displaced People in Georgia
(August 2010), p. 44 (www.amnesty.org).