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13 April 2000
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13 April 2000
Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In recent years, I have tended to highlight the progress which the international community has made in addressing the global crisis of internal displacement. I have also tried to underscore the challenges that must still be met to develop an effective and comprehensive system of protection and assistance for the internally displaced populations around the world.
This year, the international community has witnessed a higher level of concern with the problem. In January, the Security Council, under the Presidency of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke of the United States, focused its attention on Africa and the plight of its internally displaced. Since then, the issue has drawn unprecedented attention in United Nations circles, not only with respect to Africa, but worldwide. And indeed, while Africa is host to half the world = s internally displaced, it must be remembered that the crisis is truly global and affects some 20 to 25 million people in over 50 countries in literally all regions of the world.
International responses to their plight must be commensurately global. Although the gravity of their needs may differ from region to region, serious denials of protection and assistance is all too common a characteristic that they share. Apart from physical insecurity and persecution, they are often deprived of adequate shelter, food, safe water, medicine and education.
Mr. Chairman, in my annual reports and statements to the Commission, I have always highlighted the degree to which the causes of displacement -- internal conflicts, gross violations of human rights, communal violence, and other human-made and natural disasters in which discrimination is a factor -- are associated with acute crises of national identity. The cleavages that result from such crises create vacuums of responsibility for the protection and assistance of the affected population.
Of course, I am not asserting that all Governments do not at least try to provide protection and assistance for their displaced populations. Some indeed do their best, even with very limited resources. The fact, however, is that many Governments and non-state actors in conflict situations lack either the capacity or the political will to protect and assist their internally displaced populations. As a result of the crises of identity which afflict these countries, the victim populations are often perceived, not as citizens to be protected and assisted, but as part of the enemy, if not the enemy itself; they therefore run the risk of being neglected and even persecuted. To whom can they turn for protection and assistance, but to the international community?
Over the years, I have argued that the way to bridge the lack of capacity or the political will at the national level and the concern of the international community for the plight of the internally displaced is to postulate sovereignty as a normative concept of responsibility. This means that the state must meet minimum standards of protection and assistance for all those under its jurisdiction or risk external scrutiny and involvement, ranging in form and degree from diplomatic intercession to more assertive forms of intervention. It goes without saying then that the best way to safeguard national sovereignty is to live up to those standards of responsibility for the security and general welfare of the population within state borders.
Perhaps the most significant accomplishment of the mandate in this regard has been the development, at the request and with the encouragement of the Commission and the General Assembly, of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. The Principles were developed by a distinguished team of international legal experts through a broad-based process that involved virtually all the relevant U.N. agencies, other inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and regional representatives. Although not a binding instrument, these Principles are based on existing norms of human rights and humanitarian law and set forth the rights of internally displaced persons and the obligations of Governments, insurgent groups and other actors toward the internally displaced.
The Principles have met with wide acceptance by the international community since I submitted them to the Commission in 1998. They have received enthusiastic endorsement from the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), whose members are disseminating them widely and making use of them in their field operations. The Commission and the General Assembly have noted with appreciation the use of the Principles in the work of UN agencies, regional organizations and NGOs and have encouraged their further dissemination and application. The Commission and the General Assembly have also requested that I use the Principles in my dialogue with Governments. The Secretary-General, in his report to the Security Council on the A Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict @ , highlighted the Guiding Principles and the importance of promoting their observance. And indeed, in the Presidential statement on the situation of refugees and internally displaced persons in Africa, the Security Council made reference to the Principles and emphasized the need for better implementation of relevant norms of international law with regard to internally displaced persons. The Council also has begun to refer to the Guiding Principles when addressing specific situations of internal displacement, as in the case of Burundi.
At the regional level, the Commission of Refugees of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which met in Addis Ababa in June 1999, took note of the Principles A with interest and appreciation @ . It further called for increased awareness of the Principles in Africa, in particular through seminars, workshops, and round tables. The Commission = s decision was highlighted in the report of the OAU Secretary-General to the OAU Council of Ministers at its meeting in Algiers in July.
In the Americas, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS) and its Rapporteur on internally displaced persons have begun to apply the Principles in their work, as reflected in the Commission = s 1999 report on Colombia.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), for its part, has shared the Principles with its members and field staff. I am pleased to have been given the opportunity to formally present the Principles to its membership later this year.
To promote greater international awareness of the Principles and to raise visibility to the plight of internally displaced persons in all parts of the world, my office has been actively organizing regional and national workshops on internal displacement in collaboration with regional organizations, relevant UN agencies and non-governmental organizations. In October 1998, together with the OAU and UNHCR, a regional workshop on internal displacement in Africa was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In May 1999, a national workshop was organized in Bogota, Colombia, in cooperation with a consortium of Colombian NGOs and the U.S. Committee for Refugees. In November, another workshop was organized in the Philippines, by the Norwegian Refugee Council in collaboration with national NGOs on the application of the Principles in that country. And in February of this year, my office convened, in cooperation with UNHCR and international and Asian NGOs, a regional seminar in Bangkok, Thailand, on internal displacement in south and southeast Asia. In May, we are planning with the OSCE a seminar on internal displacement in the South Caucasus region.
To assist international organizations and NGOs in applying the Principles, a Handbook has been prepared as well as a Manual on Field Practice in Internal Displacement. These guides, both of which have been published with the assistance of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), provide examples of field-based initiatives that can be taken to protect and assist internally displaced persons. In addition, an annotated version of the Guiding Principles, explaining the legal sources on which they are based, will be published this year by the American Society of International Law and the Brookings Institution.
Of course, the development of a normative framework does not in itself guarantee adherence to the stipulated principles. The Guiding Principles have no enforcement nor monitoring mechanism and must depend on existing institutional structures for their promotion and implementation. The mandate is, however, planning to hold a seminar later in the year, on the development of mechanisms and strategies for the implementation of the Principles.
Mr. Chairman, while the international community has made appreciable progress in developing institutional responses to the crisis, the internally displaced remain in an anomalous situation. Among the various options which we have proposed over the years, including the creation of a special agency for the internally displaced, or the designation of an existing agency to assume full responsibility for them, the one that is widely accepted is the collaborative approach, through the IASC, under the Chairmanship of the Emergency Relief Coordinator. Internal displacement is now a standing item on the agenda of the IASC and the Representative a standing member of the Committee. Increasingly, situations of internal displacement are being discussed and dealt with in the IASC framework.
In addition, a policy paper on the protection of internally displaced persons has been developed and adopted by the IASC, emanating from my discussions with the Emergency Relief Coordinator and the High Commissioner for Human Rights several years ago. It is a significant document in that it examines how international organizations and NGOs can enhance the physical security and human rights of internally displaced populations. On the basis of this paper, supplementary guidance to Humanitarian/Resident Coordinators on their responsibilities in relation to internally displaced persons was endorsed by the IASC just last week; this is an important step towards promoting a more effective international response at the field level. Work is also under way under the IASC framework on developing training materials on internal displacement so that field staff may be in a position to respond more effectively to situations of internal displacement.
Another important IASC initiative has been the development of a global information network on internal displacement, which I have long advocated. The Global IDP Database developed by the Norwegian Refugee Council is proving to be an important resource tool providing country specific information on situations of internal displacement around the world.
Still, despite the significant progress made, especially at the headquarters level, in implementing the collaborative approach, the fact is that the system has yet to meet the needs of the internally displaced populations effectively and comprehensively on the ground. As Ambassador Holbrooke and, subsequently, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Carolyn McAskie, found in Angola, many displaced populations remain in desperate need of protection and deprived of the basic necessities of life. Indeed, this is the case not only in Angola -- which I plan to visit myself in the coming months -- but in many countries around the world. Clearly the collaborative approach needs considerable strengthening so that divisions of labour encompass protection as well as assistance and the needs of the internally displaced are more adequately and equitably addressed by the international community.
Mr. Chairman, in this collaborative approach, I see the role of the Representative of the Secretary-General as primarily catalytic. While this initially focused on studying various aspects of the problem and developing the normative framework that has culminated in the Guiding Principles, it has now crystallized into one of advocacy and continuing efforts to draw the attention of states and the international community to the plight of the displaced populations and the urgent need for providing them with effective and comprehensive protection and assistance, building on the standards stipulated in the Guiding Principles. A good example of the catalytic role of the Representative within the collaborative framework is the recent mission which I undertook to Burundi at the request of the IASC to dialogue with the Government on the basis of the IASC policy paper raising concerns about forced relocation, known in Burundi as A regroupement @ , and urging for the dismantlement of the camps. The mission made considerable progress towards this objective. Although the process has been recently interrupted, it remains my hope that the Government will continue to dismantle the camps. In another example, arrangements are currently underway for me to undertake a mission to Angola, at the request of the Emergency Relief Coordinator as a follow up to her visit and efforts to promote an enhanced international response to the protection and assistance needs of the internally displaced.
Mr. Chairman, I remain convinced that country missions provide the litmus test for the effectiveness of international collaboration in bringing needed protection and relief to the millions of those uprooted and dispossessed within the borders of their own countries. So far, I have undertaken 16 country missions, the latest being to Colombia and, most recently, to East Timor, and Burundi. Looking ahead, plans are underway for me to visit Georgia in May and I have also requested a number of other visits, including to the Russian Federation to assess the situation in Chechnya and Ingushetia. But despite the importance of country missions, unless they result in improving the conditions of the internally displaced in a practical and visible way, they can only raise hopes, which degenerate into despair and the loss of faith in the United Nations and the international community. This is why I plead with authorities at all levels to give these field visits a positive meaning for the affected populations and appeal to them to ensure implementation of my recommendations.
It should be noted that not all affected countries are open to country missions by the Representative. Indeed, a major obstacle to the international response to internal displacement caused by conflicts and systematic violations of human rights is the restriction and sometimes even denial of access to humanitarian and human rights mechanisms. While most countries respond positively to my requests for visits and extend invitations, some respond evasively or negatively, even when the crisis of internal displacement in their countries is visibly severe. The United Nations system must find a way of engaging those countries and persuading them to open up to international cooperation on behalf of their people. The international community, in turn, must ensure that agencies on the ground are provided with the necessary resources to meet the needs of the internally displaced.
In an attempt to engage the international community on these issues, the Brookings Institution's Project on Internal Displacement, which I co-direct with Roberta Cohen, has recently commissioned studies on the questions of international access as well as resource mobilization. Collaboration with the Brookings Project in these and other areas has proved to be a very useful re-enforcement, especially given the extremely limited resources available to the mandate within the U.N. system. In this context, I would like to express my deep gratitude to those Governments and foundations that have supported the work of the Representative through the Brookings Project on Internal Displacement.
To conclude Mr. Chairman, this year has marked significant progress in the increased attention which the international community is giving the plight of millions who are internally displaced and remain in desperate need of protection and assistance within the borders of their countries. But much still needs to be done. The international system must ensure that the Guiding Principles are observed, that the collaborative approach is made effective in delivering protection and assistance to the needy masses on the ground, and that the capacity of the Representative to discharge his catalytic role is sufficiently enhanced to be more effective in meeting the challenge.
Thank you Mr. Chairman and Distinguished Delegates for your attention.
Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In recent years, I have tended to highlight the progress which the international community has made in addressing the global crisis of internal displacement. I have also tried to underscore the challenges that must still be met to develop an effective and comprehensive system of protection and assistance for the internally displaced populations around the world.
This year, the international community has witnessed a higher level of concern with the problem. In January, the Security Council, under the Presidency of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke of the United States, focused its attention on Africa and the plight of its internally displaced. Since then, the issue has drawn unprecedented attention in United Nations circles, not only with respect to Africa, but worldwide. And indeed, while Africa is host to half the world = s internally displaced, it must be remembered that the crisis is truly global and affects some 20 to 25 million people in over 50 countries in literally all regions of the world.
International responses to their plight must be commensurately global. Although the gravity of their needs may differ from region to region, serious denials of protection and assistance is all too common a characteristic that they share. Apart from physical insecurity and persecution, they are often deprived of adequate shelter, food, safe water, medicine and education.
Mr. Chairman, in my annual reports and statements to the Commission, I have always highlighted the degree to which the causes of displacement -- internal conflicts, gross violations of human rights, communal violence, and other human-made and natural disasters in which discrimination is a factor -- are associated with acute crises of national identity. The cleavages that result from such crises create vacuums of responsibility for the protection and assistance of the affected population.
Of course, I am not asserting that all Governments do not at least try to provide protection and assistance for their displaced populations. Some indeed do their best, even with very limited resources. The fact, however, is that many Governments and non-state actors in conflict situations lack either the capacity or the political will to protect and assist their internally displaced populations. As a result of the crises of identity which afflict these countries, the victim populations are often perceived, not as citizens to be protected and assisted, but as part of the enemy, if not the enemy itself; they therefore run the risk of being neglected and even persecuted. To whom can they turn for protection and assistance, but to the international community?
Over the years, I have argued that the way to bridge the lack of capacity or the political will at the national level and the concern of the international community for the plight of the internally displaced is to postulate sovereignty as a normative concept of responsibility. This means that the state must meet minimum standards of protection and assistance for all those under its jurisdiction or risk external scrutiny and involvement, ranging in form and degree from diplomatic intercession to more assertive forms of intervention. It goes without saying then that the best way to safeguard national sovereignty is to live up to those standards of responsibility for the security and general welfare of the population within state borders.
Perhaps the most significant accomplishment of the mandate in this regard has been the development, at the request and with the encouragement of the Commission and the General Assembly, of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. The Principles were developed by a distinguished team of international legal experts through a broad-based process that involved virtually all the relevant U.N. agencies, other inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and regional representatives. Although not a binding instrument, these Principles are based on existing norms of human rights and humanitarian law and set forth the rights of internally displaced persons and the obligations of Governments, insurgent groups and other actors toward the internally displaced.
The Principles have met with wide acceptance by the international community since I submitted them to the Commission in 1998. They have received enthusiastic endorsement from the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), whose members are disseminating them widely and making use of them in their field operations. The Commission and the General Assembly have noted with appreciation the use of the Principles in the work of UN agencies, regional organizations and NGOs and have encouraged their further dissemination and application. The Commission and the General Assembly have also requested that I use the Principles in my dialogue with Governments. The Secretary-General, in his report to the Security Council on the A Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict @ , highlighted the Guiding Principles and the importance of promoting their observance. And indeed, in the Presidential statement on the situation of refugees and internally displaced persons in Africa, the Security Council made reference to the Principles and emphasized the need for better implementation of relevant norms of international law with regard to internally displaced persons. The Council also has begun to refer to the Guiding Principles when addressing specific situations of internal displacement, as in the case of Burundi.
At the regional level, the Commission of Refugees of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which met in Addis Ababa in June 1999, took note of the Principles A with interest and appreciation @ . It further called for increased awareness of the Principles in Africa, in particular through seminars, workshops, and round tables. The Commission = s decision was highlighted in the report of the OAU Secretary-General to the OAU Council of Ministers at its meeting in Algiers in July.
In the Americas, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS) and its Rapporteur on internally displaced persons have begun to apply the Principles in their work, as reflected in the Commission = s 1999 report on Colombia.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), for its part, has shared the Principles with its members and field staff. I am pleased to have been given the opportunity to formally present the Principles to its membership later this year.
To promote greater international awareness of the Principles and to raise visibility to the plight of internally displaced persons in all parts of the world, my office has been actively organizing regional and national workshops on internal displacement in collaboration with regional organizations, relevant UN agencies and non-governmental organizations. In October 1998, together with the OAU and UNHCR, a regional workshop on internal displacement in Africa was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In May 1999, a national workshop was organized in Bogota, Colombia, in cooperation with a consortium of Colombian NGOs and the U.S. Committee for Refugees. In November, another workshop was organized in the Philippines, by the Norwegian Refugee Council in collaboration with national NGOs on the application of the Principles in that country. And in February of this year, my office convened, in cooperation with UNHCR and international and Asian NGOs, a regional seminar in Bangkok, Thailand, on internal displacement in south and southeast Asia. In May, we are planning with the OSCE a seminar on internal displacement in the South Caucasus region.
To assist international organizations and NGOs in applying the Principles, a Handbook has been prepared as well as a Manual on Field Practice in Internal Displacement. These guides, both of which have been published with the assistance of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), provide examples of field-based initiatives that can be taken to protect and assist internally displaced persons. In addition, an annotated version of the Guiding Principles, explaining the legal sources on which they are based, will be published this year by the American Society of International Law and the Brookings Institution.
Of course, the development of a normative framework does not in itself guarantee adherence to the stipulated principles. The Guiding Principles have no enforcement nor monitoring mechanism and must depend on existing institutional structures for their promotion and implementation. The mandate is, however, planning to hold a seminar later in the year, on the development of mechanisms and strategies for the implementation of the Principles.
Mr. Chairman, while the international community has made appreciable progress in developing institutional responses to the crisis, the internally displaced remain in an anomalous situation. Among the various options which we have proposed over the years, including the creation of a special agency for the internally displaced, or the designation of an existing agency to assume full responsibility for them, the one that is widely accepted is the collaborative approach, through the IASC, under the Chairmanship of the Emergency Relief Coordinator. Internal displacement is now a standing item on the agenda of the IASC and the Representative a standing member of the Committee. Increasingly, situations of internal displacement are being discussed and dealt with in the IASC framework.
In addition, a policy paper on the protection of internally displaced persons has been developed and adopted by the IASC, emanating from my discussions with the Emergency Relief Coordinator and the High Commissioner for Human Rights several years ago. It is a significant document in that it examines how international organizations and NGOs can enhance the physical security and human rights of internally displaced populations. On the basis of this paper, supplementary guidance to Humanitarian/Resident Coordinators on their responsibilities in relation to internally displaced persons was endorsed by the IASC just last week; this is an important step towards promoting a more effective international response at the field level. Work is also under way under the IASC framework on developing training materials on internal displacement so that field staff may be in a position to respond more effectively to situations of internal displacement.
Another important IASC initiative has been the development of a global information network on internal displacement, which I have long advocated. The Global IDP Database developed by the Norwegian Refugee Council is proving to be an important resource tool providing country specific information on situations of internal displacement around the world.
Still, despite the significant progress made, especially at the headquarters level, in implementing the collaborative approach, the fact is that the system has yet to meet the needs of the internally displaced populations effectively and comprehensively on the ground. As Ambassador Holbrooke and, subsequently, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Carolyn McAskie, found in Angola, many displaced populations remain in desperate need of protection and deprived of the basic necessities of life. Indeed, this is the case not only in Angola -- which I plan to visit myself in the coming months -- but in many countries around the world. Clearly the collaborative approach needs considerable strengthening so that divisions of labour encompass protection as well as assistance and the needs of the internally displaced are more adequately and equitably addressed by the international community.
Mr. Chairman, in this collaborative approach, I see the role of the Representative of the Secretary-General as primarily catalytic. While this initially focused on studying various aspects of the problem and developing the normative framework that has culminated in the Guiding Principles, it has now crystallized into one of advocacy and continuing efforts to draw the attention of states and the international community to the plight of the displaced populations and the urgent need for providing them with effective and comprehensive protection and assistance, building on the standards stipulated in the Guiding Principles. A good example of the catalytic role of the Representative within the collaborative framework is the recent mission which I undertook to Burundi at the request of the IASC to dialogue with the Government on the basis of the IASC policy paper raising concerns about forced relocation, known in Burundi as A regroupement @ , and urging for the dismantlement of the camps. The mission made considerable progress towards this objective. Although the process has been recently interrupted, it remains my hope that the Government will continue to dismantle the camps. In another example, arrangements are currently underway for me to undertake a mission to Angola, at the request of the Emergency Relief Coordinator as a follow up to her visit and efforts to promote an enhanced international response to the protection and assistance needs of the internally displaced.
Mr. Chairman, I remain convinced that country missions provide the litmus test for the effectiveness of international collaboration in bringing needed protection and relief to the millions of those uprooted and dispossessed within the borders of their own countries. So far, I have undertaken 16 country missions, the latest being to Colombia and, most recently, to East Timor, and Burundi. Looking ahead, plans are underway for me to visit Georgia in May and I have also requested a number of other visits, including to the Russian Federation to assess the situation in Chechnya and Ingushetia. But despite the importance of country missions, unless they result in improving the conditions of the internally displaced in a practical and visible way, they can only raise hopes, which degenerate into despair and the loss of faith in the United Nations and the international community. This is why I plead with authorities at all levels to give these field visits a positive meaning for the affected populations and appeal to them to ensure implementation of my recommendations.
It should be noted that not all affected countries are open to country missions by the Representative. Indeed, a major obstacle to the international response to internal displacement caused by conflicts and systematic violations of human rights is the restriction and sometimes even denial of access to humanitarian and human rights mechanisms. While most countries respond positively to my requests for visits and extend invitations, some respond evasively or negatively, even when the crisis of internal displacement in their countries is visibly severe. The United Nations system must find a way of engaging those countries and persuading them to open up to international cooperation on behalf of their people. The international community, in turn, must ensure that agencies on the ground are provided with the necessary resources to meet the needs of the internally displaced.
In an attempt to engage the international community on these issues, the Brookings Institution's Project on Internal Displacement, which I co-direct with Roberta Cohen, has recently commissioned studies on the questions of international access as well as resource mobilization. Collaboration with the Brookings Project in these and other areas has proved to be a very useful re-enforcement, especially given the extremely limited resources available to the mandate within the U.N. system. In this context, I would like to express my deep gratitude to those Governments and foundations that have supported the work of the Representative through the Brookings Project on Internal Displacement.
To conclude Mr. Chairman, this year has marked significant progress in the increased attention which the international community is giving the plight of millions who are internally displaced and remain in desperate need of protection and assistance within the borders of their countries. But much still needs to be done. The international system must ensure that the Guiding Principles are observed, that the collaborative approach is made effective in delivering protection and assistance to the needy masses on the ground, and that the capacity of the Representative to discharge his catalytic role is sufficiently enhanced to be more effective in meeting the challenge.
Thank you Mr. Chairman and Distinguished Delegates for your attention.