Embargo: 00.01 GMT 11 February 2008

Tenth anniversary of the Guiding principles on internal displacement: Time for African Union leaders to adopt an AU Convention to protect IDPs

Civil society organisations working in and on Africa urge African Heads of State to mark the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the submission of the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement to the UN Commission on Human Rights by reaffirming their commitment to respect and uphold these Principles.

There are as many IDPs in Africa, 12 million, as there are in the rest of the world put together. The Guiding Principles, submitted by Francis Deng, former representative of the UN Secretary-General on internally displaced persons on 11 February 1998, represent a blueprint for how governments should act to prevent and respond to internal displacement. If widely accepted, incorporated into domestic law and fully implemented, the Guiding Principles would have a dramatic effect on the lives of millions of IDPs.

Africa has already shown leadership in the area of IDP protection. A number of states have developed national policies or laws based on the Guiding Principles. The Great Lakes Protocol on the Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons, signed in 2006 obliges signatory states to incorporate the Guiding Principles into domestic law. Most significantly, the AU has drafted a Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, which, as it stands, in large part reflects the Guiding Principles. If adopted, Africa will stand as the only continent where an international, legally binding instrument specifically governing IDP protection is in effect.

The Guiding Principles lay out the responsibilities of governments to prevent displacement, to assist and protect those who have been forced to flee and to aid the reintegration and rehabilitation of those who wish to return to their homes once the causes of their displacement have been resolved.

Though not legally binding, the Guiding Principles have gained widespread international recognition. In 2005, the then Secretary-General Kofi Annan referred to the Guiding Principles as “the basic international norm for protection” of IDPs and called on all States to “commit themselves to promote the adoption of these principles through national legislation”1. In the same year, the World Summit Outcome resolution, signed by 192 Heads of State, recognised the Guiding Principles as "an important international framework for the protection of internally displaced persons”2.

Endorsed by

• Amnesty International
• East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project
• Fédération Internationale des Droits de l'Homme
• IDP Action
• Ligue des Electeurs (Democratic Republic of Congo)
• Refugees International
• Sudan Organisation Against Torture
• Sudan Social Development Organisation
• West African Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons Network
• Zimbabwe Exiles Forum

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