From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Georgia From Solidarity to Solutions: The Government Response to Internal Displacement in Georgia
These important changes to national legislation removed
the legal obstacles impeding IDPs’ ability to
exercise fully their right to vote or to be elected. 164 The
remaining difficulties regarding IDPs’ political participation
have been practical in nature—in particular, the
preparation of accurate and timely lists of IDPs eligible
to vote; the coordination required between the MRA
and electoral officials on this issue; training of MRA and
electoral officials on specific provisions for facilitating
the exercise by IDPs of their voting rights; and ensuring
awareness of voting regulations among IDPs. 165 With
respect to knowledge of regulations, a public awareness
campaign and voter education programs were undertaken,
in particular by the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs and NRC, that included a televised
public service announcement featuring the chairperson
of the Central Election Commission providing
information about IDPs’ right to vote. 166
In practice, despite the removal of legislative impediments
to IDPs’ exercise of their right to vote, actual
voter turnout by IDPs has remained much lower than
the national average. 167 Further, IDPs rarely stand as
candidates for election, for reasons including lack of
financial resources, limited access to political networks,
and, as UNHCR points out, the fact that the “constant
struggle for survival in everyday life in a precarious economic
situation is such a challenge that the question of
participation in politics hardly arises.” 168 However, it is
noteworthy that currently the vice speaker of Parliament
is an IDP, Paata Davitaia, a lawyer who has been active
on IDP-related issues, including the government’s submission
of a case to the International Court of Justice
164 UNHCR, “Input to Universal Periodic Review” (2010),
para. 11.
165 See Mooney and Jarrah, The Voting Rights of Internally
Displaced Persons, pp. 35 and 37–41.
166 Ibid., pp. 37–39; and NRC, Voting Rights: A Guide to
IDP Voting Rights and How to Cast your Vote in the
Parliamentary Elections (Tbilisi: 2003).
167 Internally Displaced Persons and Their Behaviour during
the Election (Tbilisi: Business Consulting Group, May
2004), p. 4.
168 UNHCR, Gap Analysis, 2009, para. 6.1.
213
alleging genocide and arbitrary forcible displacement
during the conflicts. 169 The next parliamentary elections
are due to take place in Georgia in 2012.
10. Establish the Conditions and
Means for IDPs to Secure Durable
Solutions
Is the government working—or has it
worked—to establish conditions enabling
IDPs to secure a durable solution to
displacement?
Resolving the situation of IDPs has been a central concern
of the government since shortly after displacement
first occurred. Indeed, the government has devoted its
advocacy and efforts on IDP issues primarily to this subject
over the past two decades of internal displacement.
However, in so doing, the government has promoted the
return of IDPs and refugees to their places of origin as
the only possible solution, while impeding IDPs’ access
to other solutions, including integration in the place of
displacement or settlement elsewhere in the country.
The government of Georgia’s active engagement on the
issue of solutions to displacement—or more accurately,
on one particular solution—therefore has not been
entirely in the best interests of IDPs. By emphasizing
IDPs’ right to return with such single-mindedness, it effectively
ruled out for IDPs their right to choose among
solutions. Indeed, the government even restricted IDPs’
ability to fully access their rights and improve their
living conditions in their place of displacement, even
simply as an interim measure until such time as return
becomes a feasible option. Only recently, following
years of intense international advocacy, has the government
shifted its position to enable and support a more
comprehensive approach to durable solutions.
It is important to note that to a large extent, the preoccupation
of the government with return has corresponded
with the preferred solution voiced by many, even the
169 With thanks to Julia Kharshvili for pointing this out.