Trapped in displacement

A report from the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Global IDP Project has found that over three million victims of armed conflict and human rights violations in member states of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are unable to return home. Thirteen of the 55 OSCE countries remain affected by internal displacement. Most live as second-class citizens on the margins of society with little or no access to adequate housing, education, jobs or healthcare.

Exact figures are hard to determine, and are often contested, but it is clear that Turkey, with an estimated one million people, has Europe’s largest IDP population. Other countries with significant numbers of uprooted people include Azerbaijan (575,000), the Russian Federation (360,000), Bosnia-Herzegovina (320,000), Georgia (260,000), Serbia and Montenegro (250,000) and Cyprus (210,000).

Europe’s IDP population has not been decreasing significantly. The continued failure to resolve the region’s ‘frozen’ conflicts (including in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Cyprus) and major set-backs such as the new wave of violence and displacement in Kosovo in March 2004 are among the main obstacles to more significant return movements. But even where return is possible, conditions in return areas are often not conducive for IDPs to re-establish their lives in safety and dignity. Lack of security, discrimination, difficulties in repossessing property, dilapidated infrastructures and limited economic opportunities are all factors still preventing IDPs from returning to their towns and villages in several countries, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro and Turkey.

Slow progress?

In situations where return is not (yet) possible or where the displaced choose not to return, there has been slow progress in providing IDPs with adequate legal status and sufficient assistance to temporarily or permanently integrate in their host communities or elsewhere in the country. In several countries, IDPs still face restrictions and obstacles relating to their freedom of movement and access to documentation, employment and public services.

In a number of countries, governments have long been reluctant to normalise the situation of IDPs in an attempt to support their claims on breakaway territories. In Azerbaijan, Georgia and Serbia and Montenegro, but also in the Russian Federation, IDPs have lived under conditions of legal discrimination which cannot be explained only by the limited budget capacity of the governments. Discriminatory laws and practices affecting IDPs’ voting rights, access to public services or freedom of movement should be brought into line with international standards, the report says.

The Global IDP Project is particularly concerned that the authorities in the Russian Federation continue to pressure IDPs into prematurely returning from Ingushetia to Chechnya despite ongoing insecurity.

The report acknowledges steps made by the Turkish government towards addressing internal displacement but calls for a stronger commitment to collaborate with the international community and remove obstacles for return.

In Bosnia, Croatia and Macedonia remaining IDPs are often among the most difficult cases to solve as they include such marginalised groups as Roma, the elderly and female-headed households.

The Global IDP Project  report provides a brief overview of the size and scope of the crisis of internal displacement in each of the 13 states and contains recommendations to the national authorities and/or the de facto authorities. Most governments are still not doing enough to help the displaced return or find other durable solutions. The recommendations underscore the responsibility of national authorities with regard to the provision of protection and assistance to IDPs within their jurisdiction, as highlighted in Guiding Principle 31 of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. These recommendations aim at supporting state authorities in fulfilling their responsibility towards their citizens and thus better meeting their obligations as sovereign states.

The Global IDP Project realises that durable solutions to the plight of internal displacement also depend on political factors which are often beyond the control of the state concerned. Nevertheless, the report calls upon all state parties directly involved in unsolved conflicts and displacement crises to remove all causes of displacement and other obstacles to the return of IDPs. “But where return is not yet possible or not wished by those affected”, says Raymond Johansen, NRC’s Secretary General, “states must do more to ensure that the displaced can freely settle and integrate elsewhere in the country, without being subjected to discrimination or other restrictions of their rights.”

Trapped in displacement: internally displaced people in the OSCE area, published by the Global IDP Project in November 2004, is available online at www.idpproject.org/publications/osce_report.pdf . For more information, contact the report’s editor, Jens-Hagen Eschenbächer. Email: Jens.Eschenbaecher@nrc.ch.