From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement: Findings from 15 Countries
In Sri Lanka, the government generally permits training
of its personnel by national and international humanitarian
organizations and some small-scale trainings
have been conducted over the past decade. 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.
Trainings conducted since 2002 include a series of
training and assessment workshops conducted by the
Sri Lankan NGO the Consortium of Humanitarian
Agencies (CHA) with support from the Brookings-Bern
Project on Internal Displacement. Since its establishment
in 2002, the Human Rights Commission of Sri
Lanka (HRC) has trained government officials, government
security forces, NGOs, IDPs and host communities,
HRC staff and other actors on the rights of IDPs
through its National Protection and Durable Solutions
for Internally Displaced Persons Project. 19
In addition, CHA, with support from the Brookings-
Bern Project and UNHCR, operationalized the Guiding
Principles through the development of training materials,
including the Guiding Principles on Internal
Displacement: A Toolkit for Dissemination Advocacy and
Analysis—which targeted and was disseminated to IDPs
and relevant actors, including politicians, military officers
from the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam—as well as the Practitioners’ Kit
for Return, Resettlement and Development, which focused
specifically on Guiding Principles 28, 29 and 30
relating to return, resettlement and reintegration.
In Colombia, a workshop held in 1999 on the application
of the guiding principles on internal displacement
in Colombia brought IDP representatives and
government officials together for the first time in formal
discussion. 20 The workshop was cosponsored by the
19 See further the Sri Lanka case study in chapter 2 of this
volume.
20 Brookings Institution Project on Internal Displacement,
58
Colombian NGO, Support Group for Displaced Persons
Organizations (Grupo de Apoyo a Organizaciones de
Desplazados), the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal
Displacement and the U.S. Committee for Refugees.
The Colombian government has since recognized, most
notably in Presidential Directive No. 6 of 2001, the
need for training authorities on the Guiding Principles.
In response, the government’s Ombudsman’s Office,
together with IDMC, organized a three-day training
workshop targeting municipal ombudsmen that focused
on the Guiding Principles and national IDP legislation.
Training emphasized the particular role and responsibilities
of the municipal ombudsmen in relation to prevention,
protection, assistance, return and resettlement.
Participants also identified obstacles to implementation
and ways of overcoming them.
In Kenya 21 , the government and the National
Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) have seemingly
been active in promoting the sensitization of
relevant authorities to the Guiding Principles. While it
is not within the mandate of the Ministry for Special
Programs, the ministry charged with IDPs, to conduct
training on the rights of IDPs, it partners with human
rights NGOs to conduct training. In May 2008, the government
deployed thirty-five district officers trained
on IDP issues and peace-building to areas affected by
post-election violence. Since June 2008, the KNCHR
has conducted training on the Guiding Principles for
various authorities, including district officers, judicial
authorities, and law enforcement authorities, including
the army, the police, prison authorities, and the
national intelligence service. The National Protection
Working Group on Internal Displacement, which was
transformed from the UN Protection Cluster in 2009
and was involved in the drafting of the Draft National
Policy for the Prevention of Internal Displacement and
the Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced
Persons in Kenya, is co-chaired by the Ministry of
Internal Displacement In Colombia: Summary Report of
the Workshop on Implementing the Guiding Principles
on Internal Displacement, Bogota, Colombia, May 27-29,
1999, (www.brookings.edu/events/1999/0527_colombia.
aspx).
21 See further the Kenya case study in chapter 2 of this
volume.