This week the United Nations Secretary-General announced the establishment of a High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement.
The panel is expected to focus on ‘finding solutions to internal displacement situations and alleviating the impact on millions of affected people. The High-Level Panel will work to increase global attention on and support for displaced persons, while developing concrete recommendations for Member States, the United Nations system and other relevant stakeholders to improve the approach and response to the issue, with a particular focus on durable solutions.’
The announcement comes a decade on from the adoption of the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (the Kampala Convention), and in the context of ongoing initiatives including the AU’s 2019 Year of Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced People, the GP20 Plan of Action and Agenda 2030.
With more than 41 million people internally displaced due to conflict and violence, and many more due to climate and disaster events, the Panel is timely, but it faces a significant task.
To discuss pathways towards more effective international protection and durable solutions for IDP situations, the REF’s Laura Hammond and Louisa Brain recently participated in a roundtable event at Wilton Park, in association with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Discussions recognised the numerous, often overlapping, and changing drivers of internal displacement, including urbanisation and climate change, as well as the increasingly protracted nature of many IDP situations.
Over the two days a number of priorities emerged:
- Durable solutions planning needs to begin at the outset of displacement, not during preparations for return. In the context of changing conflict dynamics and changing aspirations and experiences of those displaced, there was a sense that durable solutions planning needs to move beyond the assumption that people will return to old realities.
- Categorisation remains a challenge for protection frameworks. Research and practice consistently show that whilst legal categories are useful in focusing on specific vulnerabilities and protection needs, they may stigmatise people and create or exacerbate tensions. (See, for example, the REF’s work on belonging and labelling in Somalia.)
- The creation of a humanitarian-development-peace nexus is key to a more joined-up response to IDP situations. Participants explored ideas around creative and better-coordinated responses to financing, the collection and sharing of data, and avenues for lesson sharing.
- The need to focus on ‘displacement contexts’ rather than categories of displaced people. This shift enables an explicit engagement with displaced persons together with host communities, and facilitates an approach that seeks to find solutions to all who are affected by displacement.
The REF will be following these themes closely in the context of the Panel, and will continue to explore them in our own research. What do you think are the key priorities for the Panel? Let us know in the comments below.
Image by MAMADOU TRAORE from Pixabay