From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement: Findings from 15 Countries
ernment has failed to prevent the displacement of ethnic,
religious, and linguistic minorities, some of which now
face near-extinction due to the fact that many of their
members have fled the country. Violence against minority
groups was exacerbated by the political vacuum resulting
from the lack of a formed government in Iraq for much
of 2010 (between March and November). 21 Further, the
ability of national authorities in many instances to prevent
displacement is severely constrained by the fact that
they do not exercise full control over the entire state territory
due to conflict and the presence of foreign military
forces (for example, in Afghanistan and Iraq) or of nonstate
armed actors (for example, in Pakistan, Colombia,
Sudan, Georgia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the
Central African Republic, Yemen and until 2009, Sri
Lanka). For example, in Iraq, displacement slowed in
2007, with some 4,700 families displaced temporarily by
the Multi-National Force—Iraq and Iraq Security Forces
counterinsurgency campaigns and additional small-scale
displacement due to sectarian, ethnic, or religious tensions
in 2009 and 2010. 22 In Pakistan, national authorities
have failed to prevent displacement caused by militant
groups, to provide sufficient protection to civilians from
attacks by the Taliban and other insurgents, and to protect
civilians when these groups purposefully station themselves
amid civilian populations or prohibit civilians from
fleeing. In addition, in the Democratic Republic of the
(IOM) assessments, almost 90 percent of post-2006
displacement originated in Baghdad, Diyala, and Ninewa
governorates; see for example, IOM, Monitoring and Needs
Assessments - Assessment of Iraqi return, 3 November
2009 (http://reliefweb.int/node/331832). For further
analysis of this sectarian violence, see Elizabeth Ferris,
The Looming Crisis: Displacement and Security in Iraq,
Policy Paper 5, Brookings Institution, August 2008 (www.
brookings.edu/papers/2008/08_iraq_ferris.aspx); Ashraf
al-Khalidi and Victor Tanner, Sectarian Violence: Radical
Groups Drive Internal Displacement in Iraq, 18 October
2006 (www.brookings.edu/papers/2006/1018iraq_alkhalidi.aspx).
21 Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq in March
2010. Joanna Hoare, State of the World’s Minorities and
Indigenous Peoples 2011: Events of 2010, Minority Rights
Group International, p. 210 (www.minorityrights.org).
22 IDMC, Overview: Iraq: IRAQ: Little New Displacement but
around 2.8 Million Iraqis Remain Internally displaced, 4
March 2010, p. 5 (www.internal-displacement.org).
26
Congo (DRC), throughout numerous armed conflicts,
national authorities have not taken measures to prevent
displacement or to minimize the adverse effects of any
unavoidable displacement; rather, they themselves have
committed human rights violations, including the forced
displacement of civilians. All parties to the conflicts—
various regular national armies, rebels, and militias, including,
for example, “at least eight national armies and
21 irregular armed groups” 23 operating in DRC between
1998 and January 2000—have committed human rights
violations and impunity has been the norm. 24 Minorities
such as some pygmy populations have been among those
targeted and forcibly displaced in the Ituri district and in
North Kivu province in the northeast. 25
While preventive measures are the most developed, at
least on paper, in Colombia, by no means is it the only case
study in which national authorities have underscored the
importance of prevention. In Nepal, the government’s responsibility
to prevent internal displacement is articulated
in the National Policy on Internally Displaced Persons
(2007). In Uganda, national authorities have taken measures
to prevent arbitrary displacement and to minimize
the adverse effects of unavoidable displacement, particularly
with respect to disasters, although some efforts regarding
conflict-induced displacement also are evident.
Measures include those outlined in Uganda’s National
Policy for Internally Displaced Persons (2004) as well as
disaster risk-reduction efforts outlined in the Ugandan
Disaster Preparedness Plan, which lists progress on
the draft of the Uganda Disaster Risk Reduction and
Management Policy as its first priority. The policy establishes
“institutions and mechanisms to reduce Uganda’s
vulnerability to disasters, effectively manage existing
risks, and enhance preparedness and response capability
23 UN General Assembly, Report of the Special Rapporteur
on the Situation of Human Rights in the DRC (A/55/403),
September 2000, para. 15(http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/
alldocs.aspx?doc_id=5580).
24 See: U.S. Department of State, 2008 Human Rights Report:
Democratic Republic of the Congo (www.state.gov).
25 Minority Rights Group, Erasing the Board: Report of
the International Research Mission into Crimes under
International Law Committed against the Bambuti Pygmies
in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (www.minorityrights.org);
U.S. Department of State, 2008 Human
Rights Report: Democratic Republic of the Congo.