Protection in humanitarian action

A quick guidance to Internally Displaced Persons

Getting introduced: The Guiding Principles

1.- In relation to the phenomena of internal displacement (a case of forced migration) the foundation document is the Guiding Principles for Internal Displacement (approved in 1998 by the UN General Assembly). These 30 Guiding Principles address the specific needs of internally displaced persons worldwide. They identify rights and guarantees relevant to the protection of persons from forced displacement and to their protection and assistance during displacement as well as during return or resettlement and reintegration.

For the purposes of these Principles, internally displaced persons are 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.

Guidance for operations

2.- The Guiding Principles document is far from being an operational guidance. In order to learn more about the operational and technical aspects of the protection of IDP, among these selected documents there are two choices: a straightforward one and a more detailed one.

2A.- The straightforward choice is the booklet “Brookings Handbook for IDP Protection”; it is slightly old (1999) but it is a rather short (about 60 pages) and clear document which follows the contents of the Guiding Principles.

2B.- The more detailed choice is the “Handbook for the protection of Internally Displaced Persons” (UNHCR 2012). It was put together by the Protection Cluster as the result of joint efforts by the staff of over 30 international organizations, most of which are members of the Global Protection Cluster who contributed to the provisional version in 2007. This includes United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations and intergovernmental organizations. The Handbook was then field-tested in the course of 2008 in over fifteen countries, involving the staff of a wide variety of inter-governmental, governmental and non-governmental agencies or bodies. It provides operational guidance and tools to support effective protection responses in situations of internal displacement. Specifically, the Handbook seeks to:

# ensure staff members are familiar with the core concepts, principles and international legal standards that form the framework for protection work;

# assist staff in operationalizing these concepts, principles and legal standards and in carrying out their protection responsibilities;

# improve understanding of the particular protection risks faced by internally displaced women, men, boys and girls of various backgrounds;

# provide guidance on how to prevent and respond to the protection risks faced by IDPs through a range of different activities;

# enhance staff skills for carrying out protection work; and

# promote a consistent and well-coordinated protection response in different operations.

Whereas the focus of the Handbook is mainly on the protection of IDPs and other affected populations in situations of internal displacement in complex emergencies, much of the guidance provided is relevant as well during natural disasters when internal displacement and protection risks also often arise (A specific annex on Protection in Natural Disasters has been added to the final edition of the Handbook)

The Handbook is divided into six parts. These six parts and their individual chapters are interconnected, but they can also stand alone as self-contained modules.

# Part I covers the foundations of protection. It sets out core concepts, approaches and humanitarian principles for protection work and provides an overview of the legal and institutional frameworks for the protection of IDPs.

# Part II outlines skills, both professional and interpersonal, which are required to support protection work.

# Part III focuses on building a protection response, providing guidance on how to assess and analyse a protection situation; develop protection strategies for response; and monitor and evaluate protection programmes.

# Part IV provides guidance on how to prevent, mitigate and respond to specific protection risks and rights violations commonly faced by IDPs, suggesting actions for supporting IDPs to realize their rights and for the State to fulfil its protection responsibilities.

# Part V provides more detailed information about key protection activities that contribute to an effective protection response, identifying the operational challenges that may arise and the principles that should guide our action.

# Part VI focuses on durable solutions and the importance of having a solutions-oriented approach to protection. It is largely based on the Framework for Durable Solutions developed by the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement with the support and guidance of Representative of the Secretary General for the Human Rights of IDPs.

Part VI provides practical suggestions for the application of this Framework in Field Operations.

Durable solutions

3.- One more step leads us to the search for durable solutions to the forced displacement. For that purpose, we have selected a document: “IASC Framework for Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons” (2010).

The Framework, which was endorsed by the IASC Working Group in December 2009, addressesdurable solutions following conflict and natural disasters. 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.

According to the authors, the purpose of this Framework is:

• to foster a better understanding of the concept of durable solutions for the internallydisplaced;

• to provide general guidance on the process and conditions necessary for achieving adurable solution; and

• to assist in determining to what extent a durable solution has been achieved.

The Framework also offers examples of indicators that, if properly adapted to the local context, can inform efforts to monitor progress towards durable solutions. It describes the key human rights-based principles that should guide the search for durable solutions and establishes the criteria that determine to what extent a durable solution has been achieved.

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 internaldisplacement, who have the primary duty and responsibility to provide protection and humanitarianassistance to IDPs, as well as for other stakeholders namely donors and IDPs themselves.

Legal aspects: The Kampala Convention

4.- As you may know, the Guiding Principles are a non-binding instrument for Governments or other actors (soft law). But the African Union passed the first legally binding instrument to protect IDP at regional level: The African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention) entered into force in 2012. The next selected document, the Kampala Convention Progress Report 2013 ( African Union and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre) is an interesting peace of reading to get introduced to the Kampala Convention and its recent developments.

Details on specific vulnerable groups

5.- Some vulnerable groups are more at risk if they become forcibly displaced (or when they seek refuge). Here we can find a number of detailed guidance documents for the following cases:

5A.- Older persons

5B.- Minorities and indigenous groups

5C.- Men and boy survivors of sexual and gender based violence.

5D.- Lesbian, Gay, Transexual, Bisexual and Intersex persons