Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons: Zambian legal expert takes over as new UN Special Rapporteur

MEDIA ADVISORY

GENEVA (15 November 2010) – Zambian national and professor of international law at the London School of Economics, Dr. Chaloka Beyani, has just assumed his mandate, as of 1 November 2010, as Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.

“The protection and assistance of internally displaced persons continues to be a pressing and relevant issue, as demonstrated by current examples of internal displacement in countries around the world caused by natural disasters and conflict situations,” said Dr. Beyani, who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council for an initial period of three years.

“We are also still learning about the complexities of some of these situations, which require a combined application of international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international refugee law,” noted the Special Rapporteur.

“I intend to continue to promote and strengthen measures for the realization of the rights and needs of internally displaced persons, and to work towards durable solutions. The existing Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement provide an excellent normative framework for this, which I will use as a platform to promote the implementation of regional instruments such as the African Convention on Internally Displaced Person, and relevant national legal policy frameworks. These capacity building initiatives and the promotion of concrete measures – especially at the regional and national levels – to protect the rights of internally displaced persons will be the central planks and focus of my mandate over the next three years,” Dr. Beyani said.

The new UN independent expert has taught International Law and Human Rights at the Universities of Zambia, Oxford, and the London School of Economics where he is currently a senior lecturer. He has published extensively on displacement and humanitarian assistance issues, as well as in the fields of international human rights, and criminal and humanitarian law.

Dr. Beyani has also worked with a number of international and regional organizations. Most notably, he took part in the negotiation and drafting of a number of important international instruments, including the African Union Convention on Internally Displaced Persons 2009 – the first such Convention of its kind – and the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region 2006. He was also a member of the Committee of Experts that drafted the new Constitution of Kenya 2010.

Dr. Beyani succeeds Mr. Walter Kälin (Switzerland), who served from 2004-2010 and Mr. Francis Deng (Sudan) 1992-2004.

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Learn more about the mandate and work of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/idp/index.htm

For additional information and press inquiries, please contact the secretariat, Ms Rosa da Costa (Tel. +41 22 917 9140 / e-mail: idp@ohchr.org).