From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

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From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement While much of the policy debate on R2P has focused on when and how the international community can and should intervene when atrocities are being committed, there is a paucity of research on how national governments can more effectively exercise their sovereign responsibilities within the context of global accountability. And yet national governments are key to preventing conflicts and human rights abuses, to preparing for disasters, and to ensuring protection, assistance and durable solutions for any populations affected when prevention efforts fall short. That is no less true in situations of internal displacement. Having framed the issue of protection of IDPs by looking at the conceptual connections between internal displacement, responsible sovereignty and the responsibility to protect, we turn below to an overview of a document which serves as a useful tool for addressing internal displacement effectively, Addressing Internal Displacement: A Framework for National Responsibility. The ways in which the Framework has been used to date are then examined briefly before explaining the methodology used in this study for applying the Framework to fifteen countries. Addressing Internal Displacement: A Framework for National Responsibility: An Overview As reflected in Principle 3 of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, national authorities have the primary duty and the responsibility to protect and assist IDPs living within their borders. The Guiding Principles themselves set forth the rights of IDPs and the obligations of governments toward these populations. In order to provide more specific guidance to governments about how to exercise their national responsibility for IDP protection and assistance, in 2005 the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement developed the document entitled Addressing Internal Displacement: A Framework International Development Research Centre, December 2001), p. xi (www.iciss.ca/report2-en.asp). 8 for National Responsibility (hereafter “Framework” or “Framework for National Responsibility”). The Framework sets out twelve broad areas in which states can directly contribute to the mitigation and resolution of internal displacement (see box 1). 39 This is not an exhaustive list of the measures expected of governments but twelve minimum steps that governments can take to translate their responsibilities into concrete actions. Taken together, they seek to guide governments through specific suggestions on actions to take. Further guidance is given on how to implement each of the twelve benchmarks by outlining certain essential elements (for example, that data collection on IDPs should encompass all categories of IDPs, should be disaggregated and should protect privacy) as well as by suggesting different practical ways of achieving each objective. Since the publication of the Framework, national authorities; regional intergovernmental organizations; international experts on internal displacement; UN human rights, humanitarian and development agencies; and NGOs, IDP associations and academics have made use of the it in a number of different ways, including as a tool for advocacy, awareness-raising, monitoring national responses to internal displacement, training of government officials, and providing technical assistance for the development of national legislation and policies to address internal displacement. International organizations and local NGOs have translated the Framework from English into eleven additional languages: Arabic, 39 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a “state”’ is the body politic as organized for supreme civil rule and government (www.oed.com/view/Entry/189241?rskey= rwB3C2&result=1#eid20898265) while a “government” is the entity that rules and directs the affairs of a state (www.oed.com/view/Entry/80321?redirectedFrom=go vernment#eid). While the state has obligations toward its citizens that transcend the particular government in power, the government is responsible for ensuring the state’s obligations toward IDPs. While government is a generic term referring to various levels of rule, the term “national authorities” and “national government” are used interchangeably in this study.
Azerbaijani, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Spanish, Tamil and Thai. 40 International Initiatives The benchmarks outlined in the Framework form a central component of the guidance on internal displacement provided by various international organizations in their training programs and resource materials. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) uses the benchmarks in its training and capacity-building tool international migration management tool for international migration management, which has been disseminated worldwide and is promoted through workshops for government policymakers and practitioners 40 Translations available at Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement, Addressing Internal Displacement: A Framework for National Responsibility, April 2005 (www. brookings.edu/projects/idp/20050401_nrframework. aspx). Introduction Box 1. IDP Protection and Assistance: Twelve Benchmarks for Action 1 1. Prevent displacement and minimize its adverse effects. 2. Raise national awareness of the problem. 3. Collect data on the number and conditions of IDPs. 4. Support training on the rights of IDPs. 5. Create a legal framework for upholding the rights of IDPs. 6. Develop a national policy on internal displacement. 7. Designate an institutional focal point on IDPs. 8. Support national human rights institutions to integrate internal displacement into their work 9. Ensure the participation of IDPs in decisionmaking. 10. Support durable solutions. 2 11. Allocate adequate resources to the problem. 12. Cooperate with the international community when national capacity is insufficient. 1 This is not an exhaustive list of the state’s obligations vis-à-vis IDPs but twelve suggested areas of action that reflect and are consistent with international human rights and humanitarian and refugee law. 2 See further: IASC Framework on Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons (Washington, D.C.: Brookings- Bern Project on Internal Displacement, April 2010) (www.brookings.edu/idp). 9 as well as for IOM staff around the world. 41 The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre makes use of the Framework and the guidance provided in particular benchmarks in its training modules and workshops on internal displacement. 42 The Framework and benchmarks also feature prominently in the Handbook for the Protection of Internally Displaced Persons, produced by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the international forum on humanitarian action for UN agen- 41 IOM, Essentials of Migration Management: A Guide for Policy-Makers and Practitioners, 2005 (www.iom.int). Also available in Arabic, Bosnian, Korean, Spanish and Russian. Note: the displacement module in the IOM publication, which was written by the author of the Framework, predates finalization of the Framework, with some slight differences. 42 See, for instance, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, “National Human Rights Institutions and Internally Displaced Persons,” incorporating the guidance provided in Benchmark 8 (www.internal-displacement. org).
Page 1 and 2: The Brookings Institution - London
Page 3 and 4: From Responsibility to Response: As
Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS Acronyms .................
Page 7 and 8: ACRONYMS AIHRC Afghanistan Independ
Page 9 and 10: FOREWORD It is with great pleasure
Page 11 and 12: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Given the large num
Page 13 and 14: It is a central tenet of internatio
Page 15 and 16: legislation relevant to IDPs. Still
Page 17 and 18: amend existing ones, in line with t
Page 19 and 20: Background and Aims of the Study In
Page 21 and 22: displacement persists for several y
Page 23 and 24: operationalizing the responsibiliti
Page 25: Therefore, it is not surprising tha
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Page 31 and 32: of the country. 62 In addition, six
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Page 35 and 36: serves only to supplant and absolve
Page 37 and 38: CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approa
Page 39 and 40: Benchmark 1 Benchmark 1 Prevent Dis
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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 represents an especially in
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about the national policy. 16 Sudan
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and reinforce durable solutions. 27
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was 12 million, or 62 percent of th
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displacement. 52 In the run-up to t
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vote is by no means consistent (for
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Benchmark 10 Establish the Conditio
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Benchmark 11 Allocate Adequate Reso
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also ordered the National Council f
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In Sri Lanka, 16 it is difficult to
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Conclusion As indicated in the intr
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Benchmark 12 Cooperation with Inter
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North Darfur, Sudan/ A woman collec
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CHAPTER 2 Case Studies Georgia, Ken
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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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