Appeal for IDPs

AFRICA INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS VOICE
(AFRICA IDP VOICE)
raising awareness and promoting effective protection of IDPs in Africa

All correspondence to be addressed to the Executive Director

THIS COPY OF LETTER HAS BEEN SENT BY E-MAIL.

21st August 2005.

Mr. Koffi Annan
Secretary General
United Nations

Your Excellency,

RE: APPEAL TO DEDICATE 2005 UNITED NATIONS DAY TO INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS (IDPs).

Your Excellency, greetings.

The Africa Internally Displaced Persons Voice (Africa IDP Voice) is a Zambia based continental non-governmental organization (NGO) working to raise awareness and promote effective protection of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Africa whose numbers are at about fifty million (50,000,000).

Africa IDP Voice works with governments in Africa in addressing the deteriorating situation of internally displaced populations through a framework for realizing national and regional responsibility (Erin Mooney- Brookings)

Mr. Secretary General Sir, this letter is to request your good office and through you that the United Nations dedicates the 2005 United Nations Day which falls on 24th October 2005 to internally displaced persons globally.

The dedication of this day to internally displaced populations will help to raise the profile of the plight of IDPs and answering questions critical to addressing internal displacement

These are questions that are critical to address if national responsibility for IDPs is to be realized. Measurable indicators or benchmarks are needed to provide guidance to the national authorities in discharging their responsibility and as a basis for assessing whether they are being effectively exercised. The day will focus on set forth benchmarks for addressing internal displacement, advocate FRAMEWORKS FOR NATIONAL AND REGIONAL RESPONSIBILITY. In particular towards fulfilling national and regional responsibility for internal displacement:

Plot 222714 Leopards Hill Road Woodland Lusaka, Zambia. P.o Box 32368, Tel: 260-1-2566468-9, Fax: 260-1-266482,
E-mail: [email protected].

1. Prevent displacement and minimize its adverse effect.
2. Raise national awareness of the problem
3. Collect data on the number and conditions of IDPs
4. Support training on the rights of IDPs
5. Create a legal framework for upholding the rights of IDPs
6. Develop a national policy on internal displacement
7. Designate an institutional focal point on IDPs
8. Encourage national human rights institutions to integrate internal displacement into their work
9. Ensure the participation of IDPs in decision making
10. Support durable solutions
11. Allocate resource (adequate) to the problem
12. Cooperation with international community when national capacity is insufficient

Further, focus on the political, social and economic root causes of internal displacement.

Taken collectively, these benchmarks constitute a framework for action for fulfilling national and regional responsibility.

The framework for national and regional responsibility provides guidance to assist in addressing internal displacement and in meeting obligations towards these populations.

At the same time this framework recognizes the important role and also responsibilities of actors, including national human rights institution, regional bodies such as Economic Community for west African States ( ECOWAS ), International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (IC/GLR ), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA ), East Africa Community (EAC ), Indian Ocean Community ( IOC ), Southern Africa Development Community (SADC ), international organizations, Donor and Civil Society in promoting, reinforcing and assisting fulfilment of national and regional responsibilities to protect and assist IDPs.

Highlighting the framework on this day globally will serve as a tool enabling international organizations and agencies, donor regional bodies, national human rights institutions, civil society and of course, IDPs themselves to monitor and assess the extent to which national and regional responsibility is being effectively exercised and thereby provide a basis for advocacy efforts for protecting the rights of the internally displaced.

The Guiding Principles on internal displacement under paragraph 58 of the Dar-es-Salaam Declaration underscore this point, setting for the right of IDPs and the obligations of governments towards these populations. They provide a framework for better understanding what national responsibility should entail.

There is need to highlight these principles as a guide in designing national and regional response and developing the steps needed to address the problem of Internal Displacement. Each bench marks a step that governments should consider taking to assume their obligation towards their Internally Displacement populations.

While government will need to tailor the step to fit their own national and regional conditions, a number of initiatives prove common. In particular, measures to prevent or mitigate displacement.

Dedicating this year’s UN Day to IDPs will help in raising national and regional awareness of the problem and conditions of IDPs. It will be advocacy in support national and regional legal framework for upholding the right of IDPs including regional harmonization; national and regional policy formulation on internal displacement and the designation of an institutional focal point on IDPs; it will encourages national human rights institutions to include rights of IDPs in their programmes, it will sensitize police and military, the Judiciary, the Legislature and development and humanitarian agencies and Civil Society to integrate internal displacement into their work; it help to lobby allocation of resources to the problem by national authorities and international community.

Further, it will enable international organizations, regional bodies, national human rights institutions, civil society assess the extent to which national responsibility is being effectively exercised and becomes the basis for advocacy efforts on behalf of the rights of the IDPs.

Africa IDP Voice prevails on African governments to carefully review the steps to addressing problems of their internal displacement as the most effective ways of dealing with internal displacement.

It will be used as a plat form to lobby donor governments to review the bench marks of national and regional responsibility as a key element in reaching decisions on funding in support of assistance to governments.

THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES ON INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT

That primary responsibility for protecting and assisting IDPs rests with their national authorities is a theme that underpins and is underscored throughout the guiding principles on internal displacement, which set forth the right of IDPs and the obligations of government towards them. Developed at the request of governments, as expressed in resolution of the United Nation General Assembly and Commission on Human Rights, the 30 principles provide a normative framework for understanding what national responsibility should entail.

The day will be used to lobby governments worldwide to recognize the Principles as an important tool and standard for addressing situations of internal displacement and which states and other stakeholders can be encouraged to widely disseminate and use.

The day will help promote and disseminate the Guiding Principles through radio and TV programmes, newspaper articles and interaction with governments as a way to give recognition to the right and special needs of IDPs and reinforce government obligation towards these populations.

The will used to lobby for the translation of the Principles into local languages and widely distributed to local and national officials, non-state actors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) spelling out the international legal standards on which the principles are based.

Training sessions in the guiding principles and on the standard of international humanitarian and human rights law on which the principles are based on this day could also be used in raising awareness of the rights of IDPs and of the responsibilities of government and other authority towards them.

Convening of national seminars on this on internal displacement will be another helpful way of raising awareness of the guiding principles. Such seminars will bring together local, regional and national government official, local NGOs and other civil society groups, international organizations and, representatives of IDP communities to discuss the different aspect of internal displacement in terms of the principles and promote joint strategies for addressing the problem.

Highlighting the principles on this day will in addition serve as an important framework for monitoring conditions in different countries. It will provide guidance for developing national laws and policies to address internal displacement. Indeed, UN resolutions have encouraged governments to develop national laws and policies for the protection and assistance of their internally displaced population taking into account the guiding principles. Overall, the guiding principles provide a normative framework that should be basis for national as well as international response to internal displacement

FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A NATIONAL RESPONSE

There is need to advocate for national and regional responses that are inclusive, covering all situations of internal displacement and groups of IDPs without discrimination. Specifically, this means advocating national responsibility for internal displacement that is comprehensive in several different respects.

All causes: National and regional responsibility for internal displacement applies to persons internally displaced in situations of conflict, communal strife and serious violations of human rights as well as IDPs uprooted as a result of natural and human-made disasters, development projects and other causes .In other words, national and regional responsibility for addressing internal displacement needs to be carried out for the benefit of all persons fitting the definition of IDPs found in the guiding principles.

BENCHMARKS OF NATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

The day will focus on advocating the 12 key steps that governments can take towards ensuring the effective exercise of national and regional responsibility and protection of the rights of the internally displaced.

Your Excellency,

Dedicating this years UN Day will help in achieving the following:

1. Prevention
Governments have a responsibility to prevent and avoid conditions on their territory that might lead to population displacement, to minimize unavoidable and mitigate its adverse and ensure that any displacement that does occur lasts no longer than required by circumstance through establishment IDP protection structures at all levels of community.

2. Raising awareness of the Problem
The government’s acknowledgement of dedicating this day to IDPs will be an acknowledgement of the existence of the problem on its territory and of its responsibility to address it is an essential first step towards an effective national response.

Recognition of the day on internal displacement will also require raising awareness about the problem, building national and regional consensus around the issue and making efforts to address the crisis as a national and regional priority. It will also entail promoting national and regional solidarity with the displaced. Effort to raise awareness will include sensitization campaigns that reach all relevant authorities, so that national and regional responsibility for addressing internal displacement becomes a concept embraced and implemented by all parts of society. Radio, TV and drama programmes including media work will be carried out targeting specific audiences both locally and internationally.

3. Data Collection

The day will add value to credible information on the number, location and conditions of the internally displaced as it is essential to designing effective policies and programs to address their needs and protect their rights.

Age, gender and other key indicators should disaggregate data so that the specific needs of particular group of IDPs, such as women heads of household, unaccompanied minors, the elderly, persons with disabilities.

It is important to underline the efforts to collect data on IDPs should not any way jeopardize their security, protection and freedom of movement. Data and information on IDPs is used as part of advocacy, awareness raising and early warning using community structures on IDP protection.

4. Training on the Rights of IDPs

Emphasis on training of government officials and other stakeholders on the rights of IDPs ensure that they are aware of their responsibilities for protecting and assisting the internally displaced. It is also part of building government capacity and accountability to effectively fulfill these responsibilities. In particular, training target:-

• Government policy-makers at the national level
• Government officials at regional and local levels, who are in more direct contact with the displaced and are responsible for implementing government policy and programs in the field
• Military and police, are expected to play a key role in ensuring IDPs’ protection
• Parliamentarians, as they play a leading role in the development of legislation
• Civil society and most importantly, for IDPs themselves, who of course are entitled to know their rights.

5. National Legal Framework Upholding the Rights of IDPs

Because protection is, fundamentally, a legal concept, awareness on developing a national and regional legal framework upholding the rights of IDPs is a particularly important reflection of national and regional responsibility as well as vehicle for its fulfilment.

In countries in all region of the world, the adoption of legislation on internal displacement has proved valuable in defining IDPs, setting forth their rights and establishing the obligation of government towards them

National Policy or Plan of Action on Internal Displacement

Awareness on the adoption of a national policy or plan of action on internal displacement is a distinct though complementary, measure to the enactment of national legislation.

National and Regional Institutional Focal Point for IDPs
Awareness on designating national institutional focal points on internal displacement is essential to ensuring sustained attention to the problem and also to facilitate coordination within the government and with local and international partners

6. Role for National Human Right Institutions

It is well recognized that national human rights institutions make an important
Contribution to national efforts promoting and protecting human rights. They enjoy official recognition by government and also often command significant respect within national societies as they usually are headed by influential and eminent people including judges or respected human rights activists.
Awareness on them including IDP rights on the programs is very important.

Among the steps to be advocated on the UN Day is to the national institutions to promote and protect the rights of internally displaced are-
• Monitor IDP conditions to ensure that IDPs enjoy the same rights as other citizens in the country and not do face discrimination in seeking to access their rights and that they receive the protection and assistance they require.
• Conduct inquires into reports of serious violation of IDPs’ human rights
• To assess whether authorities follow-up early warnings of displacement and ensure effective measures are taken by authority.
• Advise the government on the rights of IDPs, in particular working with national legislative bodies in the development of national laws in internal displacement.
• Monitor and report on government’s implementation of national legislation and compliance with international treaty obligations as well as on implementation of national policies and plans of action for IDPs.
• Undertake educational activities and training program
• Forge strong relationships with IDP association as well as local NGOs and representatives of civil society advocating for the protection of IDP rights
• Monitor the return or resettlement of IDPs’ to ensure that it is voluntary and occurs in condition of safety
• Network with national human rights institutions in other countries and relevant regional bodies to share information and experience on internal displacement with a view to developing best practices.

7. Participation by IDPs in Decision-Making

Awareness on the rights of internally displaced persons to request and to receive, protection and humanitarian assistance from their governments. An environment must exist where IDPs can make their views know without risk of punished or harm. IDPs are best to know their needs and way of addressing them. Special attention on this day should be paid to ensure the participation of internally displaced women.

Durable Solution

The awareness will stress that national and regional responsibility for internal displacement extends to ensuring that IDPs have access to a durable solution to their plight. This means making every possible effort to facilitate the return or resettlement of IDPs in accordance with their rights.

8. Adequate Resource

The major problem in protecting and assisting IDPs is lack of resources for IDP programs. Both national authorities and international community do not or a lot little resources towards IDPs. The day will used to marshal solidarity for IDPs from donors and other stakeholders towards the cause of IDPs.

9. Cooperation with International and Regional Organizations

The day will raise awareness that when government do not have the capacity to provide for security and well being of their displaced populations, they should as an exercise of responsible sovereignty, invite or accept international assistance and work together with international as well as regional organization in addressing the protection and assistance needs of the displaced and identifying durable solution to their plight.

Nature of Protection for IDPs

The day will be important as it will raise awareness that the concept of protection encompasses all activities aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights of the individual in accordance with the better and spirit of the relevant bodies of law (e.g. Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, refugee Law etc).

The definition of protection is comprehensive in scope, both in terms of the legal framework for protection (with full respect) and in terms of the strategies and methods by which protection may be achieved (through all activities).

Unlike refugees, IDPs have not crossed an international border. As such, no single international legal instrument is exclusively devoted to their specific protection needs. IDPs are covered by the law of their own country, and the state is responsible for assisting and protecting them. Under human rights law, which remains relevant in most cases of internal displacement, they are entitled to enjoy, in full equality, the same rights and freedom under domestic and international law as the rest of the country citizens.

Whenever IDPs find themselves in a situation of armed conflict, they are also protected by International Humanitarian Law (IHL). In international armed conflicts, this includes in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention and Protocol I in addition to the Geneva Conventions and in non-international armed conflicts, Article 3 that is common to the Geneva Conventions and Protocol II there to. IHL provides protection for those who have already been uprooted, and most importantly, against arbitrary displacement.

There is need for awareness to prohibit attack and destruction of objects indispensable to their survival such as crops, livestock, drinking water installations and to be treated in a humane manner and protect them from abuses committed by the party under whose power they find themselves. To preserve a minimum of safety and a basis for subsistence, both of which are essential to allow persons to remain in their home, and as guarantees for those who have already been displaced. It is important to express prohibitions against arbitrary displacement and regulate conditions under which evacuation can be carried out.

Accordingly, the implementation of IHL constitutes an important form of protection. Efforts to promote such respect for IDPs include drawing the attention of the parties to existing humanitarian problems, reminding them of their legal obligations and facilitating contacts between them for the purpose of enhancing the protection of IDPs.

Drawing upon the relevant provisions of these standard international law and refugee law by analog, the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, published in 1998, represent the first comprehensive attempt to articulate what protection should mean for IDPs in all phases of displacement.

Guiding Principles identify the rights and guarantees relevance to the protection of IDPs through all phases of displacement. They outline standards for protection against arbitrary displacement, protection and assistance during displacement, and for safe return or resettlement and reintegration of IDPs. Protection covers not only needs for physical security and safety but also the broad range of rights provided for in international law (including the rights to food, education, clean and safe water, employment etc).

The Guiding principles, it should be noted, do not seek to create a privilege the category of persons or to establish a separate legal status for IDPs. Rather, they a based on the assumption that IDPs have the same rights and obligations as other persons living in their own state. At the same time, however, they draw the attention to the importance of recognizing the particular situation and needs of IDPs. Although not a legally binding document as such, the principles reflect and are consistent with international human rights and humanitarian laws, and refugee law by analog, which are binding.

The principles provide solid guidance on how protection activities should be oriented in order to be effective. Notwithstanding the importance of basing protection on principles national and international law, it nonetheless is true that the protection of displaced persons frequently will depend on non-legal skills and initiatives. In other words, actions required to translate protection principles into effective protection on the ground. Action should also be focused on the search for durable solutions. For the essence of protection activities is the search for solutions which might ensure or restore rights. But internally displaced populations are often overlooked and their vulnerability seems to be ignored or sidelined for that of stable populations. Internally displaced populations suffer from double stigma and often-drastic economic social and sometimes cultural change. Stakeholders need to be reprimanded for their narrowed focus on initiatives that assess, monitor and/or evaluate issues of HIV/AIDS that are directed to multiple audiences, to influence policy formation, develop capacity and foster professionalism. The recognition of vulnerable and extreme vulnerable groups should be the foundation and critical point of any agenda that seek to prevent, mitigate and respond to HIV/AIDS.

The lack of an Institutional Framework for the protection and assistance of Internal Displaced Persons begets in many cases, the International Community intervention for the protection and assistance of our country’s internally displaced in the absence of responsible and effective national action. Zambia neither possess national initiatives concerned with IDPs that document best practices of ongoing HIV/AIDS programs, providing guidance for the development of national HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation strategies, identifying standards, and developing skills in the knowledge and application of the methods and practices proven to achieve the standards.

There are no specific HIV/AIDS interventions for IDPs. The AIDS epidemic thrives in an environment of social exclusion, IDPs live in such environments, separated from their families, social structures and from shared norms and values and social support. They are likely to engage in risky behaviour. Their new environment often lacks strong community cohesion, thus increasing the risk of HIV infections.
Amongst the multitude of cares, IDPs are preoccupied by more immediate challenges of physical survival and financial needs many people therefore regard HIV as a distant risk. The day will raise awareness on designing specific programs on HIV/AIDS for these populations.

CONCLUSION

Internal displacement is a pressing issue in nearly every Great Lakes State. Much remains to be done at the national level to effectively address the protection and assistance needs of the internally displaced and to set the stage for durable solutions to their plight. To reinforce these efforts, regional and international policies and programs can prove valuable. The Great Lakes region conference should be a pioneering effort by the Great Lakes to explore the regional dynamics of the problem in the Great Lakes region and to find means to cooperate in finding solutions. In doing so, participants can benefit from the example of regional efforts elsewhere and from normative framework laid out in the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, recognized across the globe as a useful tool for formulating, evaluating, and monitoring national policy and laws on internally displaced persons.

Your Excellency, I thank you. In advance

Yours Sincerely
Africa IDP Voice

Joseph Chilengi
Executive Director

Cc: The Executive Chairman
African Union (AU)
Headquarters
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

Cc: Walter Kalin-
Representative of the United Nations Secretary General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons and Co- Director, the Brookings Institutions-University of Bern Project on Internal Displacement.
Brookings Institutions – University of Bern Project on Internal Displacement

Cc: His Excellency Joaquim Alberto Chissano, Former President of the Republic of Mozambique and Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the September Summit