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Statement by Walter Kälin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons
20 March 2007
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4th session of the Human Rights Council
20 March 2007
Chairman, distinguished members of the Bureau, distinguished Representatives, Ladies and Gentlemen,
As underlined in my statement last year, my work continues to be governed by the three pillars that I consider essential for the full protection of the human rights of internally displaced persons: a strong normative framework; the political will to implement this framework; and the capacity to protect. My work addresses all three of these three pillars which must underpin all activities seeking to enhance the protection of the rights and well-being of internally displaced persons. However, after two and a half years of my mandate, and having been a privileged observer of the humanitarian community's efforts to improve its response to the needs of internally displaced persons, I would like to take this opportunity to offer some further reflections from the missions and follow-up activities which I have undertaken in the past year. These comments primarily focus on my concern with establishing both benchmarks and mechanisms which enable all concerned, and particularly the internally displaced themselves, to find durable solutions.
While the international community has grown increasingly aware of the immediate humanitarian needs of internally displaced persons, and of ways of assisting States in fulfilling their duties towards their own citizens, there is still much work to be done in the prevention of displacement and in finding durable solutions for IDPs. Today, Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity to focus particularly on the issue of durable solutions: return to one's community or voluntary resettlement in another part of the country and reintegration. I must underscore the need to find ways of ensuring that durable solutions for internally displaced persons are found; this can occur during peace negotiations, or in their absence, by preventing displacement from becoming a protracted situation in which thousands of people live in abject misery and inhuman conditions.
Unlike refugees, there is no cessation clause for internally displaced persons, and indeed, there shouldn't be one. As citizens of their own country, internally displaced persons are entitled to continue to enjoy all the rights of all citizens and such entitlement does not cease because their situation improves.
The question therefore is how to determine that their needs no longer differ from those of other citizens or are no longer caused by their heightened state of vulnerability due to their forcible displacement. In consultations held over the past year with different practitioners, I have come to the conclusion that there is no given moment in time, in which internally displaced persons should stop being considered as such. Rather, it is a gradual process by which their needs and outstanding claims, such as property restitution or reparations are, slowly but surely, met. In order to help the stakeholders gauge, within that process, how well the needs are being met, benchmarks and indicators can be identified. I have drafted a series of benchmarks for the humanitarian community, and hope that these will help international agencies and their governmental and national counterparts to determine when humanitarian assistance and protection are no longer necessary.
However, the actual timing of when durable solutions should be implemented is difficult to determine. Contexts like Georgia or Turkey with protracted displacement situations show that the problems faced by internally displaced persons could have been addressed or at least mitigated much earlier, irrespective of possible political solutions. In light of this, I welcome the adoption by the Government of Georgia of the National Strategy for Internally Displaced Persons in Georgia. The Strategy, in particular, recognizes that the right to return and the right of internally displaced persons to dignified living conditions at their sites of displacement are not mutually exclusive. It is extremely important that this Strategy is swiftly complemented by a comprehensive action plan with concrete measures to further the Strategy's goals. At the same time, certain gray areas need to be clarified and safeguards adopted which ensure protection of IDPs' rights through adequate and carefully sequenced support, in particular housing assistance and continued assistance to those in particularly vulnerable situations. I also commend the Government of Turkey, and in particular the Province of Van, for their policy implementation and Action Plan, as well as for the allocation of funds that should significantly contribute to finding durable solutions for the internally displaced persons. At the same time, I urge the Government to reconsider the expiration of the deadline for the submission of claims to the Damage Assessment Commission by property owners.
Moves towards improving the lives of IDPs can be observed in other parts of the Caucasus region. In this context, I am looking forward to my mission in Azerbaijan and to visiting Armenia in April and I would like to thank these Governments for their invitations. I also thank the Government of Russia to have agreed to a mission and hope that we can finalize dates for a visit later this year.
Other situations where conflicts and violence persist over long periods, such as Colombia, as my mission report presented to you today underlines, show that it would be possible to find semi-durable solutions for internally displaced persons by combining a humanitarian approach with a developmental one.
Experience has shown that the issue of durable solutions must be addressed sooner rather than later. Durable solutions have to be factored into the relief and protection measures that are taken from the beginning.
With this preoccupation for durable solutions in mind, I have also been following and have provided input to various political processes, such as the negotiations on the future status of the province of Kosovo, which I visited during my mission to Serbia in June 2005, and for the peace negotiations in Nepal, pursuant to my mission in April 2005, and for Northern Uganda, where I carried out a working visit in July 2006. These situations show the crucial need to ensure that IDP concerns are included early on in peace processes in order to be certain that when the time comes for the implementation of the agreements and for the actual peacebuilding to start, that the proper tracks have been laid for durable solutions for IDPs rather than seeds sown for future conflicts. As regards Côte d'Ivoire, I note with great satisfaction that the recent agreement concluded between President Gbagbo and Mr. Soro, Secretary General of the Forces Nouvelles, takes the crucial question of the fate of the IDPs into account and reflects many of my recommendations. In Uganda, I am pleased that even before the conclusion of a peace agreement, the security situation has improved enough for IDPs to return or at least move closer to their places of origin. I welcome the decision of the government to close overcrowded camps and set up satellite camps near places of origin, but am somewhat concerned that the needs of the internally displaced persons were not always met, nor that they were fully consulted in the process of either the decision or the designation of new areas to which they will move.
Within the framework of my mainstreaming mandate, I submitted a paper for reflection to the newly-formed Peacebuilding Commission urging its members to focus their attention on the particular challenges that the situation of internally displaced persons and their right to durable solutions pose in the context of rebuilding a society after the ravages of war. The systemic engagement to eliminate discriminatory practices and the marginalization of sectors of the society; to address impunity for human rights violations, including the crime of arbitrary displacement; to find governance structures that represent all the stakeholders; and to redress past injustices, including the unequal access to property and tenancy rights; offers a unique opportunity to acknowledge the suffering of the victims of forced or even arbitrary displacement. Indeed, given the myriad reasons that have forced people to flee armed conflict, the acknowledgement of these root causes and their redress within a peacebuilding process offer good benchmarks for the sustainability and validity of the overall peacebuilding process. In other words, if the needs of internally displaced persons have been addressed in a holistic manner, then there are good chances that the needs of the larger society for reconciliation and reconstruction will have been successfully addressed as well. And ultimately this is about the implementation of the human rights of the citizens and ensuring the foundations of a more just society.
Mr. Chairman,
One may wonder why I have chosen to focus on the need for durable solutions and peacebuilding, rather than emphasizing ongoing crises and the internally displaced that are affected by them. Indeed, I must emphasize that I am deeply worried about both emerging and ongoing crises. My recent mission to the Central African Republic has left me with the firm conviction that this and many other serious humanitarian and human rights crises could be avoided, if the government concerned were willing to search for a peaceful solution to the conflict, to ensure that its armed forces respect the basic tenets of international human rights and humanitarian law and to address impunity. At the same time, early and sufficient international support must be extended to prevent the suffering that is caused by displacement.
I am worried about the increasing numbers of internally displaced persons in Iraq, who have little or no access to assistance or protection because of the prevailing situation of insecurity and sectarian violence.
As regards Sudan, I have suggested a visit, together with my colleague from the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Commissioner Nyanduga, the Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Internally Displaced and Migrant Workers, to the Government of Sudan in order to jointly analyze the situation of IDPs in Darfur. I am still looking forward to receiving a positive response in the near future. The situation is serious and the longer we wait, the more the situation of the internally displaced risks deteriorating. I reiterate that I am ready to travel to the region in the near future and to continue with the Government the dialogue we initiated pursuant to my mission to Southern Sudan in October 2005.
I welcome the invitation of the Government of Sri Lanka to visit the country this year and I remain interested in making the visit as soon as possible. The displacement situation in the east of the country is urgent, and the coping capacities of the internally displaced persons as well as of both the government and humanitarian community are being pushed to their limits. I express a sincere hope that the government and the international community will make all efforts to work together in protecting the rights and meeting the needs of these IDPs. In particular, this requires ensuring that any returns of IDPs to their places of origin are voluntary and only take place in areas where their safety can be guaranteed. I am concerned about reports that the actions of the LTTE and other armed groups put IDPs at risk, and I call on all parties to the conflict to comply with international humanitarian and human rights law.
Mr. Chairman,
Although one could argue that a Special Procedure can do precious little to bring shelter and protection to people who are fleeing from persecution, rape or murder, I am the eyes and ears of this body that has commended me for this mandate. I would therefore encourage you to urge the States that have not yet done so to issue a Standing Invitation to my mandate, as well as to all other mandate holders, and furthermore to respond to requests for missions to assess situations of internal displacement in a timely manner, preferably before such situations turn into full-fledged humanitarian crises.
Thank you very much
20 March 2007
Chairman, distinguished members of the Bureau, distinguished Representatives, Ladies and Gentlemen,
As underlined in my statement last year, my work continues to be governed by the three pillars that I consider essential for the full protection of the human rights of internally displaced persons: a strong normative framework; the political will to implement this framework; and the capacity to protect. My work addresses all three of these three pillars which must underpin all activities seeking to enhance the protection of the rights and well-being of internally displaced persons. However, after two and a half years of my mandate, and having been a privileged observer of the humanitarian community's efforts to improve its response to the needs of internally displaced persons, I would like to take this opportunity to offer some further reflections from the missions and follow-up activities which I have undertaken in the past year. These comments primarily focus on my concern with establishing both benchmarks and mechanisms which enable all concerned, and particularly the internally displaced themselves, to find durable solutions.
While the international community has grown increasingly aware of the immediate humanitarian needs of internally displaced persons, and of ways of assisting States in fulfilling their duties towards their own citizens, there is still much work to be done in the prevention of displacement and in finding durable solutions for IDPs. Today, Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity to focus particularly on the issue of durable solutions: return to one's community or voluntary resettlement in another part of the country and reintegration. I must underscore the need to find ways of ensuring that durable solutions for internally displaced persons are found; this can occur during peace negotiations, or in their absence, by preventing displacement from becoming a protracted situation in which thousands of people live in abject misery and inhuman conditions.
Unlike refugees, there is no cessation clause for internally displaced persons, and indeed, there shouldn't be one. As citizens of their own country, internally displaced persons are entitled to continue to enjoy all the rights of all citizens and such entitlement does not cease because their situation improves.
The question therefore is how to determine that their needs no longer differ from those of other citizens or are no longer caused by their heightened state of vulnerability due to their forcible displacement. In consultations held over the past year with different practitioners, I have come to the conclusion that there is no given moment in time, in which internally displaced persons should stop being considered as such. Rather, it is a gradual process by which their needs and outstanding claims, such as property restitution or reparations are, slowly but surely, met. In order to help the stakeholders gauge, within that process, how well the needs are being met, benchmarks and indicators can be identified. I have drafted a series of benchmarks for the humanitarian community, and hope that these will help international agencies and their governmental and national counterparts to determine when humanitarian assistance and protection are no longer necessary.
However, the actual timing of when durable solutions should be implemented is difficult to determine. Contexts like Georgia or Turkey with protracted displacement situations show that the problems faced by internally displaced persons could have been addressed or at least mitigated much earlier, irrespective of possible political solutions. In light of this, I welcome the adoption by the Government of Georgia of the National Strategy for Internally Displaced Persons in Georgia. The Strategy, in particular, recognizes that the right to return and the right of internally displaced persons to dignified living conditions at their sites of displacement are not mutually exclusive. It is extremely important that this Strategy is swiftly complemented by a comprehensive action plan with concrete measures to further the Strategy's goals. At the same time, certain gray areas need to be clarified and safeguards adopted which ensure protection of IDPs' rights through adequate and carefully sequenced support, in particular housing assistance and continued assistance to those in particularly vulnerable situations. I also commend the Government of Turkey, and in particular the Province of Van, for their policy implementation and Action Plan, as well as for the allocation of funds that should significantly contribute to finding durable solutions for the internally displaced persons. At the same time, I urge the Government to reconsider the expiration of the deadline for the submission of claims to the Damage Assessment Commission by property owners.
Moves towards improving the lives of IDPs can be observed in other parts of the Caucasus region. In this context, I am looking forward to my mission in Azerbaijan and to visiting Armenia in April and I would like to thank these Governments for their invitations. I also thank the Government of Russia to have agreed to a mission and hope that we can finalize dates for a visit later this year.
Other situations where conflicts and violence persist over long periods, such as Colombia, as my mission report presented to you today underlines, show that it would be possible to find semi-durable solutions for internally displaced persons by combining a humanitarian approach with a developmental one.
Experience has shown that the issue of durable solutions must be addressed sooner rather than later. Durable solutions have to be factored into the relief and protection measures that are taken from the beginning.
With this preoccupation for durable solutions in mind, I have also been following and have provided input to various political processes, such as the negotiations on the future status of the province of Kosovo, which I visited during my mission to Serbia in June 2005, and for the peace negotiations in Nepal, pursuant to my mission in April 2005, and for Northern Uganda, where I carried out a working visit in July 2006. These situations show the crucial need to ensure that IDP concerns are included early on in peace processes in order to be certain that when the time comes for the implementation of the agreements and for the actual peacebuilding to start, that the proper tracks have been laid for durable solutions for IDPs rather than seeds sown for future conflicts. As regards Côte d'Ivoire, I note with great satisfaction that the recent agreement concluded between President Gbagbo and Mr. Soro, Secretary General of the Forces Nouvelles, takes the crucial question of the fate of the IDPs into account and reflects many of my recommendations. In Uganda, I am pleased that even before the conclusion of a peace agreement, the security situation has improved enough for IDPs to return or at least move closer to their places of origin. I welcome the decision of the government to close overcrowded camps and set up satellite camps near places of origin, but am somewhat concerned that the needs of the internally displaced persons were not always met, nor that they were fully consulted in the process of either the decision or the designation of new areas to which they will move.
Within the framework of my mainstreaming mandate, I submitted a paper for reflection to the newly-formed Peacebuilding Commission urging its members to focus their attention on the particular challenges that the situation of internally displaced persons and their right to durable solutions pose in the context of rebuilding a society after the ravages of war. The systemic engagement to eliminate discriminatory practices and the marginalization of sectors of the society; to address impunity for human rights violations, including the crime of arbitrary displacement; to find governance structures that represent all the stakeholders; and to redress past injustices, including the unequal access to property and tenancy rights; offers a unique opportunity to acknowledge the suffering of the victims of forced or even arbitrary displacement. Indeed, given the myriad reasons that have forced people to flee armed conflict, the acknowledgement of these root causes and their redress within a peacebuilding process offer good benchmarks for the sustainability and validity of the overall peacebuilding process. In other words, if the needs of internally displaced persons have been addressed in a holistic manner, then there are good chances that the needs of the larger society for reconciliation and reconstruction will have been successfully addressed as well. And ultimately this is about the implementation of the human rights of the citizens and ensuring the foundations of a more just society.
Mr. Chairman,
One may wonder why I have chosen to focus on the need for durable solutions and peacebuilding, rather than emphasizing ongoing crises and the internally displaced that are affected by them. Indeed, I must emphasize that I am deeply worried about both emerging and ongoing crises. My recent mission to the Central African Republic has left me with the firm conviction that this and many other serious humanitarian and human rights crises could be avoided, if the government concerned were willing to search for a peaceful solution to the conflict, to ensure that its armed forces respect the basic tenets of international human rights and humanitarian law and to address impunity. At the same time, early and sufficient international support must be extended to prevent the suffering that is caused by displacement.
I am worried about the increasing numbers of internally displaced persons in Iraq, who have little or no access to assistance or protection because of the prevailing situation of insecurity and sectarian violence.
As regards Sudan, I have suggested a visit, together with my colleague from the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Commissioner Nyanduga, the Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Internally Displaced and Migrant Workers, to the Government of Sudan in order to jointly analyze the situation of IDPs in Darfur. I am still looking forward to receiving a positive response in the near future. The situation is serious and the longer we wait, the more the situation of the internally displaced risks deteriorating. I reiterate that I am ready to travel to the region in the near future and to continue with the Government the dialogue we initiated pursuant to my mission to Southern Sudan in October 2005.
I welcome the invitation of the Government of Sri Lanka to visit the country this year and I remain interested in making the visit as soon as possible. The displacement situation in the east of the country is urgent, and the coping capacities of the internally displaced persons as well as of both the government and humanitarian community are being pushed to their limits. I express a sincere hope that the government and the international community will make all efforts to work together in protecting the rights and meeting the needs of these IDPs. In particular, this requires ensuring that any returns of IDPs to their places of origin are voluntary and only take place in areas where their safety can be guaranteed. I am concerned about reports that the actions of the LTTE and other armed groups put IDPs at risk, and I call on all parties to the conflict to comply with international humanitarian and human rights law.
Mr. Chairman,
Although one could argue that a Special Procedure can do precious little to bring shelter and protection to people who are fleeing from persecution, rape or murder, I am the eyes and ears of this body that has commended me for this mandate. I would therefore encourage you to urge the States that have not yet done so to issue a Standing Invitation to my mandate, as well as to all other mandate holders, and furthermore to respond to requests for missions to assess situations of internal displacement in a timely manner, preferably before such situations turn into full-fledged humanitarian crises.
Thank you very much