INTRODUCTION
Displacement is a life-changing event.
While the often traumatic experience of displacement cannot be undone,
internally displaced persons (IDPs) need to be able to resume a normal
life by achieving a durable solution. As articulated in principle 28 of
the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, IDPs have a right to a
durable solution and often need assistance in their efforts. Guiding Principles
28-30 set out the rights of IDPs to durable solutions, the responsibilities
of national authorities, and the role of humanitarian and development actors
to assist durable solutions.
Principle 28 recognizes that the competent
authorities have the primary duty and responsibility to establish conditions,
as well as provide the means, which allow IDPs to return voluntarily, in
safety and with dignity, to their homes or places of habitual residence,
or to resettle voluntarily in another part of the country. Securing durable
solutions for the internally displaced is also in the State's best interests.
Leaving IDPs in continued marginalization without the prospect of a durable
solution may become an obstacle to long-term peace stability, recovery
and reconstruction in post-crisis countries.
Facilitating durable solutions requires
that all stakeholders, including national and local authorities as well
as humanitarian and development actors, work together, identify the right
strategies and activities to assist IDPs in this process, and set criteria
that will help to determine to what extent a durable solution has been
achieved.
The present Framework on Durable Solutions
for Internally Displaced Persons aims to provide clarity on the concept
of a durable solution and provides general guidance on how to achieve it.
This version of the Framework builds on a pilot version released in 2007,
which the Inter-Agency Standing Committee welcomed and suggested be field-tested.
The Framework was revised and finalized in 2009, taking into account valuable
feedback from the field on the pilot version and subsequent drafts.
The revision process was led by the
Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights of internally displaced
persons working in close cooperation with the Cluster Working Group on
Early Recovery and the Protection Cluster Working Group, in particular
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Development
Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the
International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Environment Programme and the Internal
Displacement Monitoring Centre. Support was also provided by the Brookings-Bern
Project on Internal Displacement.[1]
Purpose and Scope of this Framework
The purpose of this Framework is:
- to foster a better understanding of the concept of durable solutions for the internally displaced;
- to provide general guidance on the process and conditions necessary for achieving a durable solution; and
- to assist in determining to what
extent a durable solution has been achieved.
The Framework aims to provide guidance
for achieving durable solutions following internal displacement in the
context of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations
of human rights and natural or human-made disasters.[2] Being of a generic
character, the Framework needs to be applied in light of the specific situation
and context. It is complementary to more detailed operational guidelines
adopted by humanitarian and development actors or national and local authorities.
The Framework primarily aims to help
international and non-governmental actors to better assist Governments
dealing with humanitarian and development challenges resulting from internal
displacement. The Framework may also be useful for Governments of countries
affected by internal displacement, who have the primary duty and responsibility
to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to IDPs, as well as for
other stakeholders namely donors and IDPs themselves.[3]
[1] The pilot version of this Framework
was also based on input from the Institute for the Study of International
Migration at Georgetown University.
[2] Situations may of course overlap,
in particular where disaster-induced displacement occurs in the context
of complex emergencies. It is also increasingly evident that climate change
exacerbates natural disasters and related displacement, even if not all
disaster-induced displacement is related to climate change.
While this framework may provide some
general guidance with regard to development-induced displacement, existing
special guidelines on resettlement should be consulted. See, in particular,
World Bank, Operational Policy on Involuntary Resettlement (OP 4.12, December
2001); Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Basic Principles and Guidelines
on Development-based Evictions and Displacement, (A/HRC/4/18, 2007); Asian
Development Bank, Policy on Involuntary Resettlement, 1996.
[3] In some situations, the Framework
may also be relevant for de facto authorities controlling territory, whose
acts are classified under international law as acts of the State to the
extent that such authorities are in fact exercising elements of governmental
authority in the absence or default of the official authorities, and in
circumstances which call for the exercise of such authority. See article
9, Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful
Acts, adopted by the International Law Commission at its fifty-third session
and commended to the attention of Governments by the General Assembly in
its resolution 56/83.