{"id":35174,"date":"2017-10-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ready-for-feedback3.com\/shape-history\/fmr\/cohen-8\/"},"modified":"2024-08-27T14:32:38","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T19:32:38","slug":"cohen-8","status":"publish","type":"fmr_content","link":"https:\/\/www.fmreview.org\/fr\/cohen-8\/","title":{"rendered":"A recipe to end internal displacement"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the international community mulls over the criteria for ending internal displacement , a leading NGO in Sri Lanka has come up with a 45-page guide on how to do just that in its own country. The Practitioner's Kit for Return, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Development<\/b><\/i> of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) outlines the steps for ending Sri Lanka's massive internal displacement and calls on the government and other major actors to reach that goal by 2006. <\/font><\/p>\n

First, it urges a full and final peace process to pave the way for the returns of IDPs and refugees. Second, it warns that the mere act of return will not guarantee the end to displacement. Successful reintegration requires well-conceived and well-funded rehabilitation plans in which returnees receive adequate help upon finding their homes destroyed or occupied by others and their community's schools, roads and health systems heavily damaged. Third, relief and development aid must be closely integrated with mechanisms set up for the prevention of further displacement, the protection of the human rights and safety of the displaced, political reconciliation and the creation of jobs. "Return," the Practitioner's Kit<\/b><\/i> underscores, "can be as traumatic as displacement." The remedies should seek to prevent the conditions that caused the conflict and displacement in the first place. <\/font><\/p>\n

The Practitioner's Kit<\/b><\/i> draws from standards contained in the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which it adapts to the Sri Lankan experience. Returns, it emphasises, must be voluntary, based on informed decisions about conditions in return and resettlement areas. They must take place in safety and dignity with the displaced given the opportunity to participate in their planning and management. IDPs must enjoy full access to public services, equality before the law and not be considered "enemies". They should have the right to recover their property and possessions or receive compensation, and should be assisted in transporting to their areas of origin assets required for their livelihood. <\/font><\/p>\n

An end to displacement will also require: <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n