Principle 29 asserts that: “Competent authorities have the duty and responsibility to assist returned and/or resettled internally displaced persons to recover, to the extent possible, their property and possessions which they left behind or were dispossessed of upon their displacement.…
IDPs are protected by the full spectrum of constitutional protections and applicable human rights law, including provisions designed to ensure the right to participate in the political affairs of their state on a non-discriminatory basis. National governments have a clear…
Despite the fact that many Nepalis had been displaced by natural disasters and development projects, the issues of protection and promotion of IDP rights were not taken seriously until the advent of the Maoist insurgency in the late 1990s. As…
Over ten years of brutal civil war displaced approximately 4.5 million people, about half Sierra Leone’s population.[1] After the conflict ended in 2001, UNHCR facilitated the participation of both returnee refugees and returnee IDPs in community-level reconstruction projects. UNHCR’s response…
On 30 November 2006 Typhoon Durian affected over 2.5 million people in 13 provinces of the island of Luzon. In Albay province the heavy rain loosened volcanic ash from Mount Mayon, which cascaded into densely populated communities in and around…
Since 2005, 197,000 people have been internally displaced due to armed conflict between the government of François Bozizé and various rebel groups, and because of attacks by bandits known as coupeurs de route who take advantage of the government’s inability…
UNHCR’s responsibilities as regards IDPs have developed over time. Initially, the UN system divided responsibility for protecting and assisting IDPs on an ad hoc basis. In 2003, it sought to improve its response through an inter-agency ‘collaborative approach’, which allocated…
The tenth anniversary of the Principles offers an opportunity to review training progress. The Humanitarian Response Review (HRR) which led to the implementation of the cluster approach in December 2005[1] provided a catalyst for humanitarian agencies to reinforce and reorient…
In Burma, they have been used to raise awareness about displacement and mobilise humanitarian assistance but have offered little diplomatic or political leverage to influence the national authorities. During elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo, the Principles focused…