ISSN 0143-6597 print/ISSN 1360-2241 online/03/030429-19 2003 Third World Quarterly DOI: 10.1080/0143659032000084393 429 Third World Quarterly, Vol 24, No 3, pp 429–447, 2003 Anniversaries are an artificial moment to celebrate or cry over. But, even in this postmodern era, they provide a logical point at which to review the past before continuing. Such a moment occurs a decade after the establishment of the first mandate for the Representative of the Secretary-General (RSG) on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). In spite of obvious political and technical problems gathering data in war zones, the most reliable and available indicator of suffering has usually been the number of ‘refugees’. Physical displacement is prima facie evidence of vulnera- bility because people who are deprived of their homes, communities and means of livelihood have great difficulty in resorting to traditional coping strategies. Yet refugees have been diminishing in number over the past decade, while internally displaced persons—that is, exiles who physically remain within their own Internal exiles: what next for internally displaced persons? THOMAS G WEISS ABSTRACT This article evaluates the situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) a decade after the first mandate for the Representative of the Secretary- General on IDPs. Paradoxically, this fastest growing category of war-affected populations has no institutional sponsor or agreed international legal framework, whereas refugees, whose numbers are diminishing, benefit from well developed institutional and legal efforts through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. At the outset of the 1990s the growing and massive numbers of IDPs and the changing nature of warfare suggested that what formerly had seemed a blemish was actually an ugly structural scar. In 1992 the UN Commission on Human Rights created the mandate, and the UN Secretary-General designated Francis M Deng to assume it. The independently financed Project on Internal Displacement, which he co-directs with Roberta Cohen, was set up specifically to support the mandate, an interesting model for other cash-pressed rapporteurs on human rights. Productivity and output have been impressive: a normative frame- work is in place and international discourse has changed, guiding principles are circulating, and institutions have begun to emphasise the particular problems of IDPs. However, there is no capacity to undertake systematic monitoring or follow- up of previous visits to countries that continue to flout international decisions. Greater in-depth analyses are prerequisites for better policy and advocacy. A permanent mandate and more adequate funding are required. Thomas G Weiss is at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5203, New York, NY 10016-4309, USA. E-mail: [email protected].
Internal exiles: what next for internally displaced persons?
Jul 11, 2023
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