From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Conclusion
Benchmark 2 Raise National Awareness of the Problem of Displacement
When displacement occurs, a government’s public acknowledgment
of its existence and of the government’s
responsibility to address it is an important first step in
protecting and assisting IDPs. In comparison with the
eleven other benchmarks, raising awareness of IDPs appears
to be a relatively easy measure to take. Even so, it
is a step that not all of the countries surveyed have managed
to take, at least not in response to conflict-induced
displacement. The case of Myanmar illustrates how a
government’s refusal to acknowledge displacement, in
this case of conflict-induced IDPs, ensures that for any
such ignored group of IDPs, government action on all of
the other benchmarks also is a non-starter.
In cases in which internal displacement was acknowledged,
whether or not the government admitted responsibility
for causing it, government efforts to raise
awareness of internal displacement through public
statements was not always a useful indicator of the government’s
commitment to upholding the basic human
rights of IDPs, as in the cases of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Across the countries surveyed, governments at different
times and in very different situations have tried to
raise awareness of internal displacement within their
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countries. Sometimes their efforts have been belated,
getting off the ground only several years after displacement
first occurred or only as a response to political
developments or external pressure; sometimes efforts
have been sporadic, with government engagement
ebbing and flowing over the years. In cases such as
Colombia, Kenya, Turkey, Yemen and others, the influence
of the Representative of the UN Secretary-General
on Internally Displaced Persons on national authorities
seeking to address internal displacement through policies
cannot be underestimated.
While there is always a risk in raising expectations with
promises that may not be kept, acknowledgment of the
problem of internal displacement by a high-level government
official is an essential first step to addressing
it. Moreover, by raising awareness that IDPs have rights
that must be respected, governments can send a strong
message recognizing their national responsibility to
IDPs to IDPs themselves, communities and government
officials at all levels; that, in turn, can help to trigger
more concrete measures to address internal displacement.
But governments have different motivations and
levels of sincerity in acknowledging internal displacement,
if they do, which are reflected in their subsequent
actions.