International Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons

There is no international organization; that carefully observes pre-displacement situations such as upcoming internal conflicts which would eventually cause internal displacement; that regularly monitors the status of internally displaced persons and their living conditions; or that supervises their returning process. No agency has the definite mandate of addressing the special needs of IDPs. UN agencies or NGOs assist IDPs as much as the extent of their mandates. This, of course, depends on the willingness of the related state because current international law grants states with the right of making the decision on the assistance of internally displaced persons. Governments can either choose to support their IDPs by themselves or ask for international assistance. If they, however, deny the existence of the internal displacement or whatever brings it about in the country then things get complicated. States are not obliged to accept international assistance which is a result of the legitimacy granted them by the concept of sovereignty.

 Under these conditions, internally displaced persons are, frequently, left to the mercy of their own regimes which, in the main, are the prime causes of their displacement (see Davies and Glanville 2010 Pg.102) These regimes may see the presence of international organizations as a threat to their sovereignty and/or a threat to their covered-up actions against civilian population or, they might worry that the assistance would be benefitted by their opponents. Not only regimes but also the insurgent groups may be disturbed from these organizations and try to hinder their activities.

At this point, we can summarize the position of the internally displaced in relation to agency issue as: they do not have any international organization working only and specifically for their rights; when other organizations attempt to assist them as much as their mandate allows, they mostly face the resistance of governments playing the card of sovereignty; even if these organizations, somehow, overcome or bypass reluctant governments, they might still encounter insurgent groups. Having already struggled with economic hardships or lack of qualified staff, these organizations also have to cope with the challenges of civil wars. All these problems, badly affect the speed and the quality of international assistance and, internally displaced persons get even more isolated in their own countries.

Despite of the sombre atmosphere described above, many organizations continue assisting the internally displaced. Seven organizations are prominent in this assistance: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and, the World Health Organization (WHO).

Among these, UNHCR is the most significant assistant to the internally displaced.

http://www.unhcr.org/4adf12516.html

 Although the organization states in its website that its “original mandate does not specifically cover IDPs”, in 2011, the organization “was helping about 15.5 million of the IDPs in 26 countries” (http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c146.html accessed on 17 December 2013) which was a lot more than half of the conflict-induced IDPs in the world in that year.

UNHCR has become the leading organization “in efforts to ensure the protection of conflict-related IDPs, the provision of emergency shelter to such populations, as well as the coordination and management of IDP camps” (UNHCR 2007). This role – considered under the concept of ‘cluster approach’ – is based on cooperation among different international organizations assisting the internally displaced in varied parts and under diverse conditions of their displacement. UNHCR’s leading role under this cluster approach appears to include “those at risk of displacement and those affected by displacement, such as communities hosting IDPs” (M. Christopher & M. Gareth 2010 Pg.19) although the organization does not assume this role related to disaster-induced IDPs but is ready to assist involved clusters (UNHCR 2007).

https://clusters.humanitarianresponse.info/about-clusters/what-is-the-cluster-approach

Cluster approach and UNHCR’s leading role has been a longstanding suggestion by the scholars working on internal displacement. It is hard to interpret the pros and cons of this relatively young modality. It deserves patience. And, it should not be forgotten that the success of this system depends not only the performances of the international organizations but also the standpoints of the states.      

As a non-UN, independent humanitarian organization, International Committee of the Red Cross is another fundamental agency for the internally displaced particularly when it comes to the protection of them. If the displacement has taken place in a country that already ratified “the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II of 1977, the international Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is the one organization with a formal right to assist and protect, but only if displacement occurs in the context of a large scale internal conflict” (D.Weissbrodt and M.Rumsey 2011, Pg.19).

http://www.icrc.org/eng/what-we-do/cooperating-national-societies/overview-cooperation-national-societies.htm

Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions that bounds every state today gives ICRC the right of humanitarian initiative “in the case of armed conflict not of an international character” (Common Article 3). Moreover “in the event of internal disturbances and tensions and in any other situation that warrants humanitarian action, the ICRC also enjoys a right of initiative, which is recognized in the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement” (ICRC 2010).

Among protection activities of the ICRC, that first considers, however, that “problems resulting from internal displacement are first and foremost the responsibility of national authorities” (ICRC 2000), there are “in-depth dialogue with all parties to a conflict and/or other agents of violence, whether States or other armed groups, with a view to inducing them to fulfil their obligations and ease the plight of the victims under their control”, “monitor their situation, to check that their rights are being respected and to report its observations to the authorities concerned, in order to prevent or put an end to possible violations of the law” (ICRC 2000). Moreover, ICRC reminds the parties their obligations under international humanitarian law, providing technical or training support to the authorities, stimulates authorities to take necessary measures to ensure safe return, and also provides services and material aid (ICRC 2000).

UNICEF is also deeply involved with the internally displaced most of which consists of children and women. Great dangers that internally displaced children mostly face such as forced recruitment into fighting armed forces, sexual exploitation which is quite common during displacement, violence or diseases makes UNICEF an indispensable party to the condition of internal displacement. Maybe not protection but UNICEF can provide healthcare, sanitation, education, clean water or nutrition to IDPs.

World Health Organization has been a very active actor at providing health care to the internally displaced. At the request of the governments or the UN and under the entrusting of its constitution, it builds health facilities and provides health services to IDPs. “In Rwanda, WHO joined international efforts to aid refugees, internally displaced persons and the local population. Its emergency work has also benefited internally displaced populations in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Iraq” (R.Cohen and F.Deng 1998, Pg.140).

Apart from these organizations, the World Food Programme is the greatest food provider to the internally displaced while IOM, as another non-UN international organization, provides transportation, evacuation or temporary shelter to internally displaced persons. UNDP is helping mostly during the phase of return and resettlement of the internally displaced and “it has undertaken reintegration programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Central America, Mozambique, and the Horn of Africa” ((R.Cohen and F.Deng 1998, Pg.135).

As a conclusion, it is explicit that there is no special organization which can be indicated easily as the agency specifically working for the rights of the internally displaced. In the current system, protection and assistance of IDPs are provided with cooperation among international organizations working under the framework of cluster approach. UNHCR is the leading agency in this system but the assistance of other organizations is also vital. All the agencies aid internally displaced persons in the extent of their mandates. While UNICEF, for instance, help internally displaced children and women, WFP provides food to the displaced people.

This system, however, may create coordination deficiencies. Although UNHCR is assumed the leading role, since IDPs is not its primary concern, it might be slow at discovering possible internal displacement roots and, this can be followed by late reactions to the next phases of the situations. Would another organization react faster and in a more proper way? UNHCR is familiar to the situation of IDPs for its 64 years of experience with refugees. At the end, IDPs live in refugee-like situations, deprived of their homes, lands and sometimes families. Their foremost need, however, is protection and UNHCR mostly provides assistance. ICRC, on the other hand, can inherently focus on protection matters better relying on the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols and, can operate more functional in both sides of the borders comparing to UNHCR. Nevertheless, ICRC’s capacity of reaction is limited to the related state’s comprehension of the circumstances.           

There is increasing need of protection for the internally displaced. Once protection is ensured, as a matter of fact, assistance will easily reach to them anyway. Abovementioned coordination is rather significant towards a solution and needs to be implemented in discipline but it seems not enough. An organization which would monitor the tensions that might create IDPs and show fast reactions in every phase of displacement is still a major need.

REFERENCES

Christopher M. & Gareth M. (2010) “Displacement Beyond Conflict” Berghahn Books

Cohen R. & Deng F.M. (1998) “Masses in Flight” The Brookings Institution

Davies S. & Glanville L. (2010) “Protecting the Displaced” Martinus Nijhoff

Geneva Convention (1949) Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War

ICRC (2000) Internally displaced persons: The mandate and role of the International Committee of the Red Cross 30-06-2000 Article, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 838

ICRC (2010) The ICRC's mandate and mission 29-10-2010 Overview

UNHCR (2007) “Policy Framework and Implementation Strategy: UNHCR's role in support of an enhanced inter-agency response to the protection of internally displaced persons”

Weissbrodt D. & Rumsey M. (2011) “Vulnerable and Marginalised Groups and Human Rights” Edward Elgar Publishing Limited