From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 2 Case Studies: Georgia, Kenya, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka
sibilities to assist persons displaced due to ecological
disasters, 74 whom it refers to as “eco-migrants” (see also
Benchmark 1 and 7).
As noted above (Benchmark 3), even with regard to
conflict-induced IDPs, the government is not entirely
consistent or comprehensive in conferring that status.
IDPs within Abkhazia and South Ossetia are not eligible
for IDP status; perhaps that makes sense in practical
terms as the government has not exercised effective
control of those areas since the conflicts began in the
early 1990s and therefore is not in a position to register,
let alone to assist, them. More difficult to justify, however,
is the government’s reluctance to register and grant
IDP status to displaced persons currently in Georgia
proper who come from what the government calls
“uncontrolled territories,” which refers to Akhalgori
and villages outside of but in close proximity to the
administrative boundary of South Ossetia—areas that
were under the control of the government of Georgia
prior to the August 2008 conflict. The Public Defender,
in his report to Parliament in autumn 2010, pointed out
that two years after their displacement, “the government
has yet to determine what type of status should
be granted to these persons” or to formulate a unified
position on this issue, noting that this delay provided “a
clear example” of “the slow pace of decisionmaking” in
state policy. The lack of IDP status for these people carries
significant repercussions, including lack of entitlement
to support and adequate housing. The Council
of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights also has
voiced concern about this issue and urged the Georgian
authorities
to grant IDP status swiftly and without discrimination
to all those persons who cannot
return to their places of habitual residence and
thus remain effectively displaced, having regard
74 Government decrees regulating action in this area
included, for instance, Decree No. 485, “On Rehabilitation
Works for the Houses of Eco-Migrants Built in the
Eighties of the 20 Century.” The author is grateful to Dima
Zviadadze, head of the legal department of NRC Georgia
for pointing out this reference.
194
to the fact that those who have not yet benefited
from a durable housing solution are in a particularly
vulnerable situation.
In addition to the failure to grant IDP status to persons
displaced from areas adjacent to the conflict zone,
there have been severe delays in granting IDP status to
those among the new cases of IDPs who opted to receive
compensation instead of relocate to the alternative
housing offered, thereby depriving them of access to the
monthly stipend disbursed to IDPs. According to data
compiled by the MRA, at the end of April 2011 more
than 4,500 persons displaced by the August 2008 conflict
still had not received IDP status. As the Georgian
Young Lawyers Association has pointed out, the Law
of Georgia on Forcibly Displaced Persons–Persecuted
Persons does not specify that IDP status is limited to
persons displaced from occupied territories, nor do the
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. 75
The law affirms that all “forcibly displaced persons–persecuted
persons” are entitled to enjoy, in full equality,
the same rights and freedoms under domestic and international
law as do other people in their country and that
they should not be discriminated against in the enjoyment
of any rights and freedoms on the grounds that
they are internally displaced. In addition, the law provides
for certain specific entitlements. Those registered
as forcibly displaced or persecuted persons are entitled
to the following benefits: a monthly special social assistance
stipend, temporary shelter and temporary access
to plots of arable land (which are exempt from related
75 Public Defender of Georgia, Report on the Human Rights
Situation of Internally Displaced Persons and Conflict-
Affected Individuals in Georgia: Reporting Period January-
July 2010 (2010), pp. 12, 15–16 and 51. Council of Europe,
Commissioner for Human Rights, Report on Human
Rights Issues Following the August 2008 Armed Conflict
in Georgia, by Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for
Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, 7
October 2010, Doc. CommDH(2010)40, paras. 17–18.
Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA), State
Policy on Internally Displaced Persons: Deficiency Analysis
(2011), pp. 6–7; Annex N4, letter of MRA No. 06-06/2176,
dated 29 April 2011, p. 7; and pp. 7–8.