Internally Displaced Persons of Africa

Africa has a longstanding displacement problem a large part of which arise from the false drawing of the state borders by the colonial powers. Yes, instead of taking into account of peoples’ choices, ethnicities, cultural ties or religions European states considered only their interests when they were assigning the borders of African states. Religious or ethnic groups were divided by state borders which created conflicts among different tribes or entities. Natural resources were distributed according to the wishes of outsiders as a result of which governments and different power centres got engaged with struggles of interests forcing people to leave their homes.

According to the IDMC, there were over 10.4 million IDPs in the 18 sub-Saharan countries in 2012 which is equal to almost a third of the global total. While the number of the refugees in Africa has been decreasing in the last decades, number of the IDPs has been increasing. Most affected states by internal displacement are Central African Republic (the CAR), Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the DRC), Somalia, and Sudan. Only in the DRC there are around 2.7 million IDPs. In Sudan this number is 2.5 million. Great Lakes region is the most affected part of the continent. The biggest reasons of displacements in Africa are the conflicts and violence emerging from the struggles for political power and natural resources.

Having paid badly for the thoughtless historical mistakes of Europeans for centuries, Africans have recently started to realize that they can solve their own problems better than anybody else. Since the beginning of the 2000s there have been initiatives to answer the question of IDPs in the continent. While some African states made legislations according to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement some others drafted IDP policies or laws. But there is one very recent effort in the continent that what I believe is one of the most significant achievements in the history of the IDPs problem. Signed in 2009 and entered into force in 2012 after its ratification by 15 states, Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa or simply Kampala Convention has become the first binding international agreement related to the IDPs.

Kampala Convention is inspired by the Guiding Principles, however contrary to the latter; the former is binding and assigns responsibilities on the signing parties. Kampala Convention defines Internally Displaced Persons as “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border” (Kampala Convention, Article 1(k). Convention gives the biggest responsibilities to the states but also sets out rights and duties for the related actors such as armed groups, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), international organisations and the AU.

According to the Kampala Convention, CSOs can play an important role at the every phase of the displacement. CSOs can not only provide shelter, food and education but also advocate the rights of the IDPs worldwide. Armed groups, on the other hand, were given obligations to respect the rights of IDPs. Host communities and their needs were not forgotten. They are the people who share their homes with the displaced and most of the IDPs in Africa are actually assisted by these people. Kampala Convention notes that “States Parties shall assess or facilitate the assessment of the needs and vulnerabilities of internally displaced persons and of host communities, in cooperation with international organizations or agencies.” (Kampala Convention, Article 5(5).

Displaced people in Africa have a non-static character which means that today’s IDPs might be tomorrow’s refugees or reverse. Neighbouring countries assumes the protection of refugees flowing from each other while dealing with their own IDP problems. It should be noted that if a state is reluctant to take care of its own IDPs, it will be even more reluctant to take care of other states’ refugees. So, this truth must be taken into consideration next time when making international agreements and IDPs should be included in the protection circles. I hope that lessons are learned from African Kampala Convention and a legally binding international agreement is created in the level of the UN related to the IDPs.   

5 Similarities and Differences Between Conflict-Induced IDPs and Refugees

SIMILARITIES

1. They are both forced to leave their homes

2. In most of the cases their own governments do not or can not assist them

3. They cannot return their homes because of the fear of death

4. They need protection, shelter and food

5. In both cases the situation of displacement continues for long years 

DIFFERENCES

1. Refugees are the ones who crossed their state borders, IDPs, on the other hand, could not mostly because of their weaknesses or inabilities.

2. For the refugees, there is a 'Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees' which is binding for the 145 ratified parties. For IDPs though, there are non-binding 'Guiding Principles' that present a guidance for the states, international organizations and individuals dealing with the situation.

3. UNHCR is a UN agency working specifically for the rights of the refugees since 1950, IDPs, in contrast, do not have such a specific organization while according to the Guiding Principles must be protected and supported by their own governments that are mostly the main reason of their displacement.

4. For every one refugee, there are almost two IDPs worldwide.      

5. By crossing the border, refugees are granted asylum by the hosting state and their next urgent needs are food and shelter. IDPs, on the other hand, stay among fires and must keep living with the fear of death everyday.

Syrian IDPs Crisis

   It is right that Syria had longstanding IDPs problem that was derived from Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights and the repressive policies of the Syrian regime. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, in 2010, there were at least 433,000 IDPs in the country because of conflict and violence. However, recent conflicts that forced people to leave their homes resulted with massive displacements in Syria as a result of which internal displacement escalated very quickly. Only in 2012, 2.4 million internal displacements were observed. This figure might be higher for 2013. Latest IDPs figure of IDMC shows that there are more than 5.1 million IDPs in the country which is about a quarter of the total population. This means that one of every four Syrians is in the situation of internal displacement.

   Early displacements in 2011 were as a result of the government’s efforts to stop the uprising. Displacements of almost entire population (41,000) of Jisr Al-Shughur were occurred for the fear of possible government response to armed groups’ attacks on security forces. Displacements around Damascus and Homs were also in this character. Syrian government began to use heavy artillery to stem the tide of uprising which resulted in destruction of houses and more displacement. Aleppo, Homs and Damascus attracted lots of IDPs during this period. 

   In time, different opposition armed groups were mushroomed in the country. These groups are not only fighting against the government forces but also against each other. Conflicts are turning into sectarian violence in different areas. People began to be killed according to their religious beliefs or their ethnicity. Great powers are after their interests in the area. While the USA has been trying to weaken Russian influence in the region, Russia does not want to lose its ally government. Russia has had good relations with the Ba’ath regime for a long time. There has been longstanding arm trade between the two countries. Russians also have access to the Tartus naval facility on the Syrian coast although it is for temporary mooring and repair. Russia has strong doubts about Chechen militants fighting with the opposition. For all these reasons, Russia sees significant strategic importance in the region and does not seem like it will let another western intervention. Although the USA, on the other hand, has had a desire to topple the Syrian government, involvement of the extreme groups into the conflicts against the regime make Americans dubious about the decisions of the Syrian future. Moreover, Russian resistance in the UN Security Council and the recent domestic economic and political scandals are effective factors of the latest unstable reactions of the States.      

   In this environment, Syrian IDPs who are already in need of food and shelter are also in serious threat of death. If the displacement keeps this pace, we might witness one of the biggest human tragedies of all times.  

10 Facts about Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement

1. In response to the request of the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1992, they were prepared by Mr. Francis M.Deng in several years and presented to the Commission in 1998.
2. The main purpose of this was to find out the causes and consequences of internal displacement and to create the ways to improve protection and assistance for IDPs.
3. They define Internally Displaced Persons
4. They include 30 principles providing protection for the IDPs in all the phases of displacement.
5. They present a guidance for the states, international organizations and individuals dealing with the situation.
6. They are not internationally binding.
7. The principles give the main responsibility for the protection of IDPs to their nation states.
8. Some regional organizations and states made references to or incorporated the Guiding Principles into their resolutions or laws.
9. In 2005, the Commission on Human Rights expressed "its appreciation of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement as an important tool for dealing with situations of internal displacement", welcomed "the dissemination, promotion and application of the Guiding Principles" and encouraged "the continued dissemination and promotion of the Guiding Principles".
10. Considering that the internal displacement is as old as the nation state, 1998 dated, non-binding principles shows how far behind we are in the field.

A Need For An Organization

   The most urgent need of the IDPs is protection. Food, shelter and etc. come after. For me, there needs to be an international organization to be able to answer all kinds of requirements of the IDPs from the first displacement until the final return. UNHCR has been doing as possible as it can to support IDPs beside its original responsibility of refugees. However, it is accepted even in the official website of the organization that ''UNHCR´s original mandate does not specifically cover IDPs". So far, cooperation among agencies has been the international reaction to the IDPs problem. Different agencies such as UNHCR, OCHA, UNICEF or ICRC have been assisting the IDPs as long as the size and the shape of their mandate. But  there still needs an organization to organize this assistance from various agencies. Moreover, this organization might be the legal and true voice of the IDPs and lobby not only in the United Nations but also in the states that are the regional or global power. 

Internationally Forgotten Persons

   Internally displaced persons (IDPs) or as I call them internationally forgotten persons are the ones who could not or did not pass a border-different than refugees-during a forced displacement. 'Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement' which is the only international document about the IDPs defines them as ''persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border.''

   What we can inference from this definition is that the borders are the key points to decide who can be IDPs and who can be a refugee. This separation is actually very important since if you are a refugee you can get either help from the state you get asylum or from international organizations. This should not be perceived as something negative. This is, in fact, a very significant progress for the refugees began with the establishment of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1950 and the agreement of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1951. What is unfortunate is that the international will created such a security system for the refugees, stayed as audience in the case of IDPs.

   There is no specific international organization for IDPs neither a binding regulation. They are left to the mercy of their own regimes, however, in most of the cases those regimes are the biggest reason of displacement. The biggest obstacle in front of international help for IDPs is the sovereignty rights of the states. These formations created by Westphalia give governments massive rights in their own territories while prohibiting external agents from getting involved into domestic practices. States are the sole decision-making bodies for the future of the IDPs.
   We can count other reasons for why it is difficult to solve the problem of IDPs such as the interests of global or regional powers or, domestic dynamics of those states, however, these would not work more than to give us reasons not to help those people. Every barrier around the problem of internal displacement is man-made and it is in our hands to collapse them by creating new solutions. This is what I will be trying to do in this blog. I will try to find solutions for the protection of IDPs.