From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

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CHAPTER 2 Case Studies: Georgia, Kenya, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka collected by local government officials during registration but are typically neither aggregated by authorities at the local level nor regularly compiled at the national level by international agencies. Similarly, data for events for which the displaced need certification, such as deaths and births, for national identity cards, and for lost land titles and missing family members are not systematically collected, and the scope of the need for documentation can only be extrapolated from samples. 38 A serious impediment to quantifying the need is its political character. For example, death certification is required for family members to inherit the property and assets of the deceased, to claim pensions and compensation and to legally remarry. But the government publicly acknowledging the number of death certificates needed among the “new” IDPs would be tantamount to enumerating the number of casualties resulting from its assault on the Northern Province— which it is loath to do for political reasons. Rather than encourage the government to quantify the need, international agencies have instead urged it to streamline the process for issuing documentation. 39 4. Support Training on the Rights of IDPs Has there been any training of the authorities on the rights of IDPs? Regional and to a lesser extent national government 38 One humanitarian worker stated that only 10 percent of respondents in a small survey of displaced families who had lost family members reported success in acquiring a death certificate. Author interview, early 2011. 39 See also the Report of the Secretary General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka, 31 March 2011, pp. 108–10, which describes as “slow and cumbersome” the process for obtaining death certification despite the government’s December 2010 passage of a temporary provision establishing new definitions and procedures (www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Sri_Lanka/POE_Report_ Full.pdf). 286 officials have participated in numerous training sessions in recent years on both the rights of IDPs and other issues related to internal displacement. However, the number, duration and frequency of those sessions are very difficult to measure on a national level. There is little systematic, accurate reporting on training and its modalities and no centralized reporting mechanism. Quantitative reports on training in the Sri Lankan setting should be taken in this light. The government generally permits training of its personnel—most notably, the police and military—by national and international humanitarian organizations. Much of the Northern Province, where displacement is most extensive, was formerly governed and administered by the LTTE; in the conflict and post-conflict period, it has been, in effect, under the administration of the military. Only recently have many areas in the North transitioned to civil administration. The primary obstacle to training government officials during this time has been the lack of consistent humanitarian access (See Benchmark 12, below). However, a significant number of small-scale training sessions have been conducted throughout the country since 2002. Sri Lankan NGOs, such as the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies in Sri Lanka (CHA), have conducted workshops with financial support from international actors. For example, in 2002 the CHA, with financial support from the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, conducted a series of training and assessment workshops in Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Jaffna, Mannar, Batticaloa and Ampara. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC), established initially as an independent body to protect and promote human rights, holds ongoing training for government authorities on the rights of IDPs. Since its creation in 2002, HRC’s National Protection and Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons Project (NPDS for IDPs Project) has conducted training programs for the protection and promotion of IDP rights. Training is carried out for government officials,
Sri Lanka Gaps in the Government Response to Post-2007 Internal Displacement government security forces (army, navy, air force and police), NGOs, IDPs and host communities, HRC protection staff and private sector actors. In 2008, the NPDS for IDPs Project reported that it trained 4,936 people in 200 sessions using the Rights-Based Disaster Response training program, which focuses on the rights and protection of conflict- and disaster-induced IDPs in all stages of displacement. The NPDS for IDPs Project includes reports of its training sessions in monthly and annual reports. 40 HRC continued to conduct training throughout the country in 2009 and 2010. 41 While the HRC has been the primary trainer on the rights of IDPs in Sri Lanka, the government has permitted other training initiatives, generally targeting the North, that have benefited IDPs. 42 Foreign government agencies such as USAID have sponsored training on human rights and the Tamil language for local government and security officials. 43 UNHCR, UNICEF and local government officials (women and children’s desk officers, judicial medical officers and mental health officers) provided a substantial number of capacity-building training sessions throughout the North to enable local officials to address sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). 44 Government SGBV counselors and members of the military and the police often attended the sessions. 40 Available on the NPDS for IDPs Project website (www. idpsrilanka.lk). 41 However, see Benchmark 8, below, on government actions to incapacitate HRC during these years. 42 In an effort to refrain from favoring specific groups, most post-conflict humanitarian assistance programming in the North has targeted specific geographic areas, as opposed to specific groups. 43 International Crisis Group, Development Assistance and Conflict in Sri Lanka: Lessons from the Eastern Province, p. 3 in footnotes, 16 April 2009 (www.crisisgroup.org). 44 “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: A Summary of UNHCR Activities in Sri Lanka” (UNHCR, March 2010). 287 5. Ensure a Legal Framework for Upholding IDPs’ Rights Does national legislation address the specific needs arising in situations of internal displacement and support IDPs to realize their rights? There is no national law in Sri Lanka directly addressing internal displacement; consequently, IDPs have no special legal status. 45 A draft bill on the protection of internally displaced persons was developed but had yet to be passed at the time of writing. The internment of civilians in the final stages of the conflict violated several provisions of national law enshrined in the Sri Lankan constitution. 46 The government justified the violations, as well as many other instances of arrest without due process and indefinite detention, by appealing to a set of temporary legal measures known collectively as the Emergency Regulations, which have drawn fierce criticism from the international community. A draft bill on protection of internally displaced persons was submitted to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights in August of 2008 by the Human Rights Commission’s National Protection and Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons Project. It covers all phases of displacement due to conflict, disasters and development. There are specific provisions in the draft legislation to protect extremely vulnerable groups among the displaced, such as children and persons with disabilities. It would establish an Internally Displaced Persons Authority as the lead agency for issues related to displacement and designate other responsible institutions. 47 45 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 Sri Lanka, 14 to 21 December 2007, A/HRC/8/6/Add.4, 21 May 2008, para. 19, p. 9 (http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/ dpage_e.aspx?m=71). 46 The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, 1978. 47 Draft Bill of Protection of Internally Displaced Persons
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The Brookings Institution - London
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From Responsibility to Response: As
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CONTENTS Acronyms .................
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ACRONYMS AIHRC Afghanistan Independ
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FOREWORD It is with great pleasure
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Given the large num
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It is a central tenet of internatio
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legislation relevant to IDPs. Still
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amend existing ones, in line with t
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Background and Aims of the Study In
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displacement persists for several y
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operationalizing the responsibiliti
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Therefore, it is not surprising tha
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Azerbaijani, Chinese, French, Portu
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National Initiatives In Iraq, IOM p
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of the country. 62 In addition, six
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in French and Spanish depending on
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serves only to supplant and absolve
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CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approa
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Benchmark 1 Benchmark 1 Prevent Dis
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Benchmark 1 Prevent Displacement an
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Benchmark 2 Raise National Awarenes
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Conclusion Benchmark 2 Raise Nation
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Benchmark 3 Data Collection on Inte
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—Current location and location of
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its registration rolls intra-urban
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and profiling of three types of IDP
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the government of Afghanistan under
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Benchmark 4 Training on the Rights
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actions of DRC authorities and nong
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the provision of technical support
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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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Kenya National Response to Internal
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