Because addressing internal displacement is primarily a duty of governments, promoting national responsibility and accountability is essential. This is no less true in Latin America, where there are some 3.3 million IDPs. Most are found in Colombia in conditions of…
In November 2003 Thomas Nimley Yaya, chairman of the Liberian rebel group MODEL, announced that his soldiers would disarm on one condition: they wanted vocational training in exchange for their guns. In their war-torn country neither money nor food could…
By the end of 2003 there were nearly 25 million people displaced within their own countries by conflicts and human rights violations. During the year, some three million people were forced out of their homes in 2003; a similarly high…
Australians Against Racism (www.australiansagainstracism.org) has published a book bringing together the best refugee stories submitted for an essay competition which ran in primary and secondary schools around Australia. The 37 stories in the collection provide extraordinary accounts written by young…
Roberta recounts that she arrived at the Brookings Institution in 1994 to an empty desk, wondering how to define an IDP. Today internal displacement is a fully-fledged field of study and operations. Roberta’s contribution to this transformation cannot be underestimated.…
It is with great pleasure that I take this opportunity to pay tribute to a dear friend and a close partner in the promotion of international response to the global crisis of internal displacement. Roberta helped pave the way for…
These events were crucial steps in the history of human rights protection because they recognised IDPs as a vulnerable group in need of specific human rights protection. The Guiding Principles, in particular, have become the authoritative text on the human…
In 1992 the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) authorised the UN Secretary-General to appoint a representative on the issue of internal displacement. The mandate was to explore “views and information from all Governments on the human rights issues related to…
The short answer to this is yes. The more accurate answer is yes – in the last year or so, in quite dramatic terms – but with some way still to go. The sorts of deficiencies identified by Cohen and…
During the past year UNHCR has made a clear commitment to be a more predictable partner among humanitarian actors in its response to the protection, assistance and solutions needs of IDPs. UNHCR’s policy concerning engagement with IDPs has evolved from…