Michael Barutciski’s argument in the article entitled 'Tensions between the refugee concept and the IDP debate’ in FMR 3 is persuasive on two accounts. First, he rightly identifies the essence of the refugee concept: that of being a foreigner in need of specific legal protection measures. It is not by virtue of being displaced that the refugee conventions are activated; rather, it is by virtue of having crossed a border. Second, Barutciski is correct in suggesting that the notion of protection under the refugee conventions presupposes that sovereignty is not contravened. In other words, once refugees leave their country, international agencies entrusted with their protection do not have to face the wrath of a sovereign nation for intervening on its territory.
The IDP debate, however, did not emerge from a concern to extend the refugee regime, as Barutciski implies. True, it examined closely the legal apparatus of that regime, but it also looked at human rights laws and conventions as well as international humanitarian law. In some respects it is useful to divide the imperatives for assistance and protection. The crucial questions are these: can international assistance (food, shelter, medicine) circumvent borders? And if so, might we not also develop a set of protection measures specific to IDPs which simply reconfirm existing national and international law? The UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement are a composite restatement of existing laws; they are not 'additional’. Indeed, rather than being a convention or declaration, they have been very carefully drafted as 'guidelines’ with, as yet, no clear notion of how they might be imposed, other than by consensus and persuasion. They are welcomed by, for instance, the ICRC whose field mission is to advocate respect for existing international humanitarian law conventions. But they can also be used as a starting point in the debate over how the UN and NGOs might advocate and improve upon their own measures to protect displaced civilians.
These are early days. The UN’s Inter-Agency Standing Committee has already begun to explore 'best practice’ in the assistance and protection of IDPs. Individual UN agencies (notably UNICEF and WFP) are undertaking a review of their own practices in this regard. The wider issues of intervention and sovereignty, while useful in themselves, cannot be allowed to forestall very practical measures that can be taken on the ground. Heaven forbid that IDPs in Kosovo, Angola or Burma should have to wait for consensus among legal experts before their plight is addressed.
Jon Bennett is currently undertaking a review of the World Food Programme’s policies and approaches to IDPs.