From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement
national policy on internal displacement drafted by the
government for having “ignored international guidelines
on establishing a framework for national responsibility.” 57
Important to note is that the Framework is being applied
to and used in all types of internal displacement.
The country examples cited above all relate to conflictinduced
displacement. However, the Framework also is
being promoted and used to advocate and guide national
responses to internal displacement caused by natural
disasters. For example, in the United States of America,
lawyers’ groups have drawn upon the Framework
to advocate for the protection of IDPs displaced by
Hurricane Katrina. 58 More generally, UN OCHA
refers UN Resident Coordinators and Humanitarian
Coordinators to the Framework as among the sources of
guidance in situations of natural disaster. 59 In addition,
the World Bank is among those promoting reference to
the Framework in examining responses to displacement
in the context of development. 60
The wide dissemination and use that the Framework
has enjoyed by governments and other actors supporting
the promotion of IDP rights protection since its
publication in 2005 is testament to the interest in and
57 The Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation
Monitoring Project, Agenda Item 2: Addressing the
Humanitarian Crisis and Promoting National Healing and
Reconciliation, Report on Status of Implementation (January
2009).(www.dialoguekenya.org/docs/Agenda%20
Item%20Two%20chapter.pdf).
58 Hon. Cynthia Diane Stephens and Jerome Reide,
“Katrina & Internally Displaced Persons: More than Mere
Semantics,” Human Rights, Fall 2006, vol. 33, no. 4, p.2-4
(www.americanbar.org/publications/human_rights_
magazine_home/irr_hr_fall06_stephensreide.html).
59 See, for example, “Protection in Disasters,” presentation by
UN OCHA at Resident Coordinators Regional Workshop
on Humanitarian Coordination, 16-18 June 2008, Panama
City, Panama.
60 Asger Christensen and Niels Harild, Forced Displacement
– The Development Challenge, The World Bank Group,
December 2009, p. 7 (http://siteresources.worldbank.
org/EXTSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/Resources/ 244362-
1164107274725/3182370-1164201144397/Forced_
Displacement.pdf).
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need for guidance on IDP protection and assistance.
Indeed, what is clear from the above examples is that the
Framework is used primarily as an awareness-raising,
monitoring and training tool. Such activities are useful
and can indeed further implementation of a number
of the benchmarks, namely those concerning a state’s
acknowledgment of the occurrence of internal displacement
(Benchmark 2), training of government officials
on IDP issues (Benchmark 4) and monitoring the
government response, for instance, by national human
rights institutions (Benchmark 8).
Methodology
This study seeks to use the Framework for National
Responsibility, in particular its twelve benchmarks,
to understand and assess the specific measures that
national authorities have taken or have failed to take to
meet their obligations to protect the human rights of
internally displaced persons in fifteen countries.
Country selection
Using this template of benchmarks, in addition to indicators
developed for each benchmark (see below), data
on national responses to internal displacement in fifteen
countries was collected and analyzed. The countries
included in the study (see map 1) were selected from
a list of the twenty countries with the largest populations
of IDPs, according to global figures on internal
displacement in situations of armed conflict, generalized
violence and human rights violations. Together,
these 15 countries represent around 72 percent of the
world’s 27.5 million IDPs (see figure 1). 61 Nine of the
ten countries with the highest number of IDPs were
included in the study; Somalia was excluded on the
grounds that the Somali government does not exercise
effective control over more than a few square kilometers
61 Percent estimate is according to correspondence with
IDMC, based on the best estimates of IDPs displaced by
armed conflict, generalized violence and human rights
violations as of December 2010.