From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Benchmark 6 Develop a National Policy on Internal Displacement
An action plan called for in the State Strategy was
adopted in July 2008—just weeks before renewed
conflict—but it was not as comprehensive in scope as
outlined in the State Strategy in that it focused almost
entirely return. However, the government revised the
plan and in May 2009 adopted the more comprehensive
State Action Plan for Implementation of the National
Strategy on Internally Displaced Persons, which was
revised in May 2010 to expand the housing strategy and
the focus on livelihoods support.
In February 2007, the government of Nepal adopted
the National Policy on Internally Displaced Persons.
The policy, following a recommendation by RSG Walter
Kälin following his 2005 mission to the country, 19 explicitly
refers to the Guiding Principles on Internal
Displacement; it is correspondingly comprehensive
scope, recognizing displacement due to conflict and
natural and man-made disasters and covering all phases
of displacement. 20 Prior to the policy the government
recognized as IDPs only people uprooted by the actions
of Maoist insurgents and therefore did not recognize as
IDPs those displaced by the government and its security
forces; as a result, assistance was restricted to those
displaced by Maoists. However, that discriminatory and
politically motivated approach now has been corrected
with the more inclusive definition of IDP adopted in the
national IDP policy. An ongoing problem, however, is
that while the policy contains provisions for safe and
voluntary return, reintegration, or resettlement, government
assistance is available only to those seeking to
return. 21
19 UN Commission on Human Rights, Report of the
Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human
Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, Walter Kälin—
Addendum: Mission to Nepal, E/CN.4/2006/71/Add.2, 7
January 2006, para. 67 (www.brookings.edu/projects/idp/
rsg_info.aspx#Kalin).
20 Government of Nepal, National Policy on Internally
Displaced Persons, 2063 (2007), Brookings-LSE Project
on Internal Displacement, “National and Regional Laws
and Policies on Internal Displacement: Nepal” (www.
brookings.edu/projects/idp/Laws-and-Policies/nepal.
aspx).
21 IDMC, Nepal: Failed Implementation of IDP Policy
79
The national policy is generally considered to be a solid
policy; the primary problem is its implementation. To a
certain extent, the government of Nepal has taken steps
to address the problem. In July 2007, representatives of
the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR) and
other line ministries formed a task force to develop a set
of procedural guidelines for proper policy implementation
(IDP Policy Directives) with support from the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the
Norwegian Refugee Council. 22 The directives clarify
the procedures to be followed by all service providers,
facilitate program implementation by incorporating
and systematizing institutional mechanisms, and set out
clear and consistent procedures for IDPs to acquire their
entitlements and to access services. They include regulatory
mechanisms for registration and de-registration
of IDPs and provisions to give every IDP an informed
choice vis-à-vis all three durable solutions. 23 At the end
of 2007, MoPR submitted the IDP Policy Directives to
the Cabinet for approval, but as of July 2011 they had
not been approved. In early 2010, MoPR reviewed and
revised the IDP Policy Directives to resubmit to the
Cabinet. At the time of writing, the process of revising
both the National Policy on Internally Displaced Persons
and the IDP Policy Directives is reportedly making little
progress as it is stuck at the MoPR. Moreover, according
to a field assessment by the Nepal IDP Working
Group, few government officials were even aware of the
national policy or its contents, including many of those
directly responsible for its implementation, and only 35
percent of IDPs and returnees surveyed were aware of
the national IDP policy. 24
Leaves Many Unassisted, January 2010 (www.internaldisplacement.org).
22 Nepal IDP Working Group, Distant from Durable
Solutions: Conflict-Induced Internal Displacement in Nepal,
June 2009 (www.internal-displacement.org).
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid, pp. 34-38.