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The London Declaration of International Law Principles on Internally Displaced Persons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Luke T. Lee
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Extract

At its sixty-ninth conference, held in London from July 25 to 29, 2000, the International Law Association (ILA) approved by consensus the Declaration of International Law Principles on Internally Displaced Persons (the Declaration). This Declaration, prepared by the International Committee on Internally Displaced Persons, followed two earlier ILA proclamations relating to the forced movement of people: the Declaration of Principles of International Law on Mass Expulsion, adopted in Seoul in 1986; and the Declaration of Principles of International Law on Compensation to Refugees, adopted in Cairo in 1992. All three instruments address forced movement from the perspective of the responsibility of countries of origin, in contrast to the traditional focus on the care and maintenance of refugees as a responsibility of first-asylum, resettlement, and donor countries, as well as of the United Nations and other international organizations, both governmental and non-governmental. By dealing with the root causes of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and their status, the present Declaration broadens the concerns of international law to encompass all persons who have been forcibly uprooted from their homes, whether or not they have crossed their national borders.

Type
Current Developments
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 95 , Issue 2 , April 2001 , pp. 454 - 458
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2001

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References

1 The full text, including commentaries and annex, will be published in 69 ILA, Conference Report (2000) [hereinafter Declaration]. It is also available online at the ILA’s Web site, <http://www.ila-hq.org>.

2 In addition to the undersigned, the committee comprised members from Belgium (Jean-Marie Henckaerts), Brazil (Adherbal Meira Mattos), Croatia (Budislav Vukas), Ethiopia (Daniel Haile), Finland (Ruth Donner), Germany (Nils Geissler, Andreas Zimmermann), Ghana (John B. K. Kaburise), Korea (Woon-Sang Choi, Myong Joon Roe), the Netherlands (G.J. H. van Hoof), Singapore (Lincoln Wee), Sweden (Jerzy Sztucki), the United Kingdom (Vera Gowlland-Debbas), the United States (Maryellen Fullerton, James A. R. Nafziger, Louis B. Sohn), Yugoslavia (Boško Jakovljević), and Zambia (Chaloka Beyani), and the co-rapporteurs Rainer Hofmann (Germany) and Yukio Shimada (Japan).

3 See Committee on Legal Status of Refugees, Report of the Committee, 62 ILA, Conference Report 542 (1986).

4 See International Committee on the Legal Status of Refugees, Report of the Committee, 65 id. at 424 (1992); Luke, T. Lee, The Cairo Declaration of Principles of International Law on Compensation to Refugees, 87 AJIL 157 (1993).Google Scholar

5 UN Doc. E/CN.4/2000/53/Add.2, Annex [hereinafter Guiding Principles].

6 Id., Introduction, para. 1; Kalin, Walter, Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement: Annotations 2 (ASIL Studies in Transnational Legal Policy No. 32, 2000)Google Scholar.

7 Guiding Principles, supra note 5, Introduction, para. 2.

8 UNHCR, Internally Displaced Persons: The Role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Mar. 6, 2000) [hereinafter UNHCR Position Paper], at <http://www.unhcr.ch/issues/idp/pos0003.htm>.

9 Declaration, supra note 1, Art. 2(1).

10 Id., Annex.

11 Id., Art. 3(2).

12 Id., Art. 3(1).

13 Id., Art. 7.

14 Id., Art. 9.

15 Id., Art. 4(1).

16 Id., Art. 17.

17 Id., Art. 5(1).

18 Id., Art. 4(3). Given the Rwandan experience, it should have been obvious that ethnic cleansing by one ethnic group against another will beget reverse cleansing once the tables are turned. Thus, the United Nations and the international community should aim not only at stopping the ongoing ethnic cleansing, but also at preventing the inevitable reverse cleansing. This could be done, for example, by building up institutions of a civil society at the very beginning. Instead, as the UN envoy Dennis McNamara pointed out, in Kosovo there was an “environment of tolerance for intolerance and revenge”—as the old images of Albanians forced out of Kosovo on their tractors were replaced by Serbs fleeing Kosovo on their tractors. In fact, as of July 2000, out of some five hundred killings since NATO had assumed control of Kosovo (mainly by ethnic Albanians against Serbs), not a single conviction had been obtained. Erlanger, Steven, As UN’s Kosovo Role Ebbs, an Official Has Caustic Advice, Int’l Herald Trib., July 4, 2000, at 4.Google Scholar

19 Declaration, supra note 1, Art. 10(1).

20 Id., Art. 13(1), (2).

21 Id., Art. 13(2).

22 Id., Art. 11(2).

23 Id., Art. 12.

24 Id., Art. 13(4), (5).

25 Id., Art. 14(3) & Commentary, paras. (5)-(8).

26 Id., Art. 14(1).

27 Id., Art. 14(2).

28 Id., Art. 15(2).

29 Id., Art. 16 & Commentary, para. (1).

30 Using border crossing as the most important criterion for distinguishing between refugees and IDPs, hence determining their eligibility for international protection and assistance, may be faulted on historical, practical, juridical, and human rights grounds. Luke, T. Lee, Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees: Toward a Legal Synthesis? 9 J. Refugee Stud. 27 (1996).Google Scholar

31 UNHCR, Refugees, No. 118, 2000, at 2; UNHCR, Refugees by Numbers 2000, at <http://www.unhcr.ch> (visited Apr. 30, 2000).

32 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, July 28,1951,189 UNTS 150; Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Jan. 31, 1967, 19 UST 6223, 606 UNTS 267.

33 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, Sept. 10,1969,1001 UNTS 45.

34 GA Res. 428 (V), Annex: Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UN GAOR, 5th Sess., Supp. No. 20, at 46, UN Doc. A/1775 (1950).

35 As defined by Sir Humphrey Waldock, human rights are “rights which attach to all human beings equally, whatever their nationality.” Waldock, C. H. M., Human Rights in Contemporary International Law and the Significance of the European Convention, 11 Int’l & Comp. L. Q. Supp. 1, 3 (1965).Google Scholar Indeed, equal rights for all individuals—be they nationals or aliens, refugees or IDPs—is implied in all universal and regional human rights instruments through the use of such expressions as “all human beings,” “everyone,” “no one,” and “all.” Hence, not a single “right” in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example, is specified or implied as belonging only to “refugees,” and not to “IDPs.”

36 Between 1990 and 1996, for example, the Security Council declared a formal threat to international peace and security sixty-one times, in contrast to only six times in the preceding forty-five years. Jessica, T. Mathews, Power Shift, Foreign Aff., Jan./Feb. 1997, at 50, 59.Google Scholar In the cases of Haiti and Somalia, the Chapter VII resolutions authorizing forceful intervention addressed primarily domestic human rights abuses or generalized violence, rather than an actual threat or danger to peace beyond tire country’s border.

37 1 Oppenheim’s International Law 442–43 (Jennings, R. Y. & Watts, Arthur eds., 9th ed. 1992).Google Scholar

38 Obviously, UNHCR’s self-imposed preconditions for involvement in any specific operation relating to IDPs would need to be modified’. Among the preconditions, for example, are (1) consent to UNHCR’s operation not only by the territorial state concerned, but also, where applicable, by other entities in the conflict; (2) adequate security for the staff of UNHCR and its implementing partners; and (3) adequate resources and capacity. Adoption of similar preconditions by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Medecins sans Frontières would prevent these highly effective nongovernmental organizations from playing a useful role in protecting and assisting both refugees and IDPs. These preconditions are contained in UNHCR Position Paper, supra note 8.

39 Francis, M. Deng, Protecting the Dispossessed 140 (1993)Google Scholar, quoted and discussed in Palley, Claire, Legal Issues Arising from Conflicts Between UN Humanitarian and Political Mandates—A Survey, in The Problem of Refugees in the Light of Contemporary International Law Issues 145, 162 (Gowlland-Debbas, Vera ed., 1996).Google Scholar

40 Certain Expenses of the United Nations (Article 17, Paragraph 2, of the Charter), Advisory Opinion, 1962 ICJ Rep. 151 (July 20).

41 The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established pursuant to GA Res. 57(1), UN Doc. A/230 (1946). By GARes. 802 (VIII), UN GAOR, 8th Sess., Supp. No. 17, at 53, UN Doc. A/2630 (1953), the name of the organization was changed to the United Nations Children’s Fund, while retaining the symbol UNICEF.

42 See Lee, supra note 30, at 30-33.