States must incorporate Guiding Principles into domestic laws and policy affecting internally displaced

25 years since adoption of UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement

GENEVA (17 April 2023): The year 2022 saw the highest number of internally displaced persons ever recorded, with conflict, violence and disasters having triggered millions of internal displacements across countries and continents, a UN expert said today. Twenty-five years since the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement were presented to the Commission on Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons Paula Gaviria Betancur issued the following statement:

“Twenty-five years ago today, the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement were presented to the then Commission on Human Rights. This landmark framework of 30 principles authoritatively reflects norms of international human rights and humanitarian law to guide States and other stakeholders on how to address internal displacement, from prevention to solutions. They emphasise the specific needs of internally displaced persons by identifying their rights and the obligations of national authorities to protect them from displacement, provide assistance and to foster conditions for sustainable return, local integration and settlement elsewhere in their countries.

Twenty-five years later, the Guiding Principles are as relevant as ever. 2022 saw the highest number of internally displaced persons ever recorded, with conflict, violence and disasters having triggered millions of internal displacements across countries and continents. The numbers alone can never encapsulate the scale, magnitude, complexity, and enormous human suffering confronted by internally displaced persons. Displacement shatters lives for years and even generations, generates conditions of severe hardship and suffering, breaks up families, cuts social and cultural ties, disrupts education and development, denies access to vital necessities, and exposes innocent persons to abhorrent human rights abuses.

The Guiding Principles remain the most widely recognised framework outlining standards and measures to prevent, respond to and resolve internal displacement. Most importantly, the Guiding Principles are grounded in States’ primary responsibility to prevent arbitrary displacement, provide protection and assistance to internally displaced persons, and facilitate durable solutions for them. The Guiding Principles, now translated into more than 40 languages, are recognized in the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (Kampala Convention) and have inspired 46 countries to develop laws, policies, strategies or action plans on internal displacement. They also serve as a basis for internally displaced persons to advocate for their rights and participate in decisions that affect them.

Much has been achieved and more remains to be done. On the silver jubilee of this milestone document, I urge governments worldwide to continue incorporating them into domestic laws, policies, strategies and action plans to comprehensively address internal displacement, including through effective implementation of laws and policies, and facilitate the participation of internally displaced persons in decisions that affect them.

I will continue to amplify the voices of internally displaced persons, involve displaced communities in the responses and solutions that affect them, strengthen partnerships and operational responses to internal displacement, and raise the plight of the internally displaced persons on the international agenda.”

ENDS

The expert: Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons.

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.