From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 2 Case Studies: Georgia, Kenya, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka
assistance to the MRA (2009–10) was to address the
ministry’s shortcomings and strengthen its institutional
capacity and performance in the area of coordination,
including coordination with the international community.
Progress in this regard with the establishment of
the Steering Committee and improved overall institutional
performance by the MRA in fact generated renewed
confidence in the ministry, which is benefiting
from an expanded number of capacity-building projects.
To maximum the impact of these efforts, the MRA
has called for its partners to coordinate and support a
comprehensive capacity-strengthening program for the
MRA, based on a common analysis of needs and joint
strategy for addressing these gaps. 247 As noted earlier
(Benchmarks 4, 6, 7, 10 and 11), key capacity-strengthening
partners of the MRA currently include UNHCR,
the Danish Refugee Council with EU support, USAID,
the World Bank, and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The government of Georgia has responded affirmatively
to various requests by the Representative of the
Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons to
allow official visits to the country. 248 Regarding humanitarian
access more broadly, the government of Georgia
historically has facilitated efforts by international organizations
seeking access to Abkhazia and South Ossetia
in order to engage with the de facto authorities, including
on IDP issues, and to undertake humanitarian
operations in these areas; its cooperation generally was
mirrored by that of the de facto authorities of Abkhazia
and South Ossetia. Most notably, UNHCR and the
OSCE maintained since the mid-1990s a field presence
in both regions, where peacekeeping missions also were
247 Hovey and Mooney, Technical Assistance to the Ministry
for Refugees and Accommodation, 2010.
248 RSG Francis Deng undertook an official mission in May
2000; RSG Kälin undertook an official mission to the
country in December 2005, a working visit in December
2006 and official missions in October 2008 and November
2009. Related documents, cited above, are available at
Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement (www.
brookings.edu/projects/idp/rsg_info.aspx) and OHCHR
( http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?m=71).
228
deployed over the same period. 249
However, in a significant departure from the cooperation
generally enjoyed by the international community
with all parties to the conflict since the 1990s, humanitarian
access to both conflict regions has been seriously
restricted since the 2008 conflict. The Georgian
government passed the Law on Occupied Territories
of Georgia, which limits access to each region through
only one point in Georgia proper (Zugdidi municipality
to access Abkhazia and Gori municipality to access
South Ossetia), and access is contingent on formal authorization
by the central government. 250 While the law
provides that “special permission” to enter the territories
may be granted in “extraordinary circumstances,”
including for humanitarian purposes, this exception
is limited to emergency humanitarian assistance. 251 As
RSG Kälin has pointed out, it still would not allow for
delivery of non-emergency assistance, such as for durable
shelter, which, since the end of the emergency phase
immediately following the conflict, is what is needed. 252
Meanwhile, the South Ossetian de facto authorities insist
that humanitarian assistance may enter only through the
249 The UN Observer Mission in Georgia, composed of
unarmed UN military observers, operated in Abkhazia
and in Georgia proper from 1993 until July 2009, ending
after the required consensus within the UN Security
Council for continuation of the mission was lost in June
2009. In South Ossetia, the Joint Control Commission,
comprising representatives from Georgia, the Russian
Federation, North Ossetia (in the Russian Federation) and
South Ossetia (in Georgia proper), was in place from 1992
to 2008 to monitor the ceasefire brokered in 1992.
250 Law on Occupied Territories of Georgia ,adopted by
Parliament on 23 October 2008 and signed by the
President of Georgia on 31 October 2008.
251 Compare in this regard the interpretation of European
Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice
Commission), Opinion on the Law on Occupied Territories
of Georgia, Adopted by the Venice Commission at its 78th
Plenary Session (Venice, 13–14 March 2009) (www.venice.
coe.int/docs/2009/CDL-AD(2009)015-e.asp).
252 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Representative
of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally
Displaced Persons, Walter Kälin—Addendum: Mission to
Georgia, 2009, para. 35.