From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Benchmark 2 Raise National Awareness of the Problem of Displacement
speeches. However, the Nepalese authorities have not
met their obligations, under the national IDP policy, to
conduct awareness-raising programs for IDPs regarding
their fundamental rights, to disseminate information
related to IDP issues, and to regularly communicate
with all relevant stakeholders regarding displacement.
Even government officials responsible for addressing
internal displacement are largely or completely unaware
of the policy. According to an assessment conducted by
the Nepal IDP Working Group, “none of [the] government’s
district level agencies (other than CDOs [Chief
District Officers], LDOs [Local Development Officers],
and [the] Police) are aware” of the National Policy on
Internally Displaced Persons and “it is unfortunate that
VDCs [Village Development Committee] Secretaries,
who are the primary implementers at the grass root
level, have little or no knowledge” of the policy. It only
follows that IDPs themselves are also ill-informed.
While 61 percent of surveyed IDPs knew that return
and rehabilitation package existed, only 33 percent of
respondents had received state relief and assistance
from this program. In addition, only 35 percent were
aware of the national IDP policy—due to NGO efforts,
not government—and none could identify any of its
elements. 3
Human Rights Perspective on A Natural Disaster (Durham,
N.C.: Institute for Southern Studies), vol. xxvi, nos. 1–2,
a special report by the Institute for Southern Studies
and Southern Exposure, produced in collaboration with
the Brookings-Bern Project on Internally Displaced
Persons], January 2008 (www.southernstudies.org/
ISSKatrinaHumanRightsJan08.pdf); Roberta Cohen, “An
Institutional Gap for Disaster IDPs,” Forced Migration
Review, no. 32 (April 2009), pp. 58–59 (www.fmreview.org/
FMRpdfs/FMR32/58-59.pdf); Roberta Cohen, “Human
Rights at Home,” statement at the Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard University, 1 November 2006
(www.brookings.edu/speeches/2006/1101humanrights_
Cohen.aspx).
3 IDP Working Group, Distant from Durable Solutions:
Conflict Induced Internal Displacement in Nepal, June
2009, pp. 34, 37-38 (www.internal-displacement.org);
citations from p. 38. The IDP Working Group in Nepal
is composed of seven international and national agencies:
the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), International
Rescue Committee, Save the Children, International Relief
33
While acknowledging internal displacement and/or a
government’s responsibility to address it on paper or in
speeches may be better than not acknowledging it at all,
significant gaps in implementation remain. Those gaps
may point to the need to draft policies and laws that
provide more realistic ways and means for governments
to fulfill their obligations in light of their often limited
resources and the political constraints that they must
deal with while still respecting a rights-based approach
to protection and assistance of IDPs in line with international
standards. From the research conducted for this
study, it appears that the motives of presidents, prime
ministers, and other high-level officials in calling attention
to the phenomenon of internal displacement and
their initiatives to address it are primarily political—for
example, to garner support from IDPs and other national
groups and possibly to keep their countries on the radar
of the international system to secure funding. It also is
likely that in some cases international pressure has led
governments to adopt policies or make statements on
the importance of addressing displacement when the
governments were unable or unwilling to translate their
stated commitments into effective action on the ground.
That may be due to a lack of capacity, but it also may be
due to lack of will to do more than pay lip service to the
importance of the issue.
The government of Uganda has recognized its national
responsibility to address internal displacement politically,
legally, and operationally. It was the first country in the
world to request and receive, in March 1999, training on
the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which
was co-organized by the Norwegian Refugee Council
(NRC) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights (OHCHR) at the request of and in
collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister.
Lasting acknowledgment is most evident in the National
Policy for Internally Displaced Persons (2004), which
recognizes IDPs’ specific protection and assistance
and Development, Caritas, Informal Sector Service Center
(INSEC) and Inhured International. The assessment was
led by NRC and included direct interviews with 234 IDPs
and returnees from 19 districts.