IDPs in Africa

I posted last November on the African Union's plans to draft a convention on internal displacement. A special summit was due to be held in April 2009 to endorse the draft, but the meeting ended up being re-scheduled for October.

In the interim, a recent article in the Journal of Refugee Studies discusses the "Legal and Institutional Dimensions of Protecting and Assisting Internally Displaced Persons in Africa." It reviews the steps towards the realization of an AU Convention on IDPs that have been taken so far. The author also highlights a number of existing instruments that, in the absence of any formal convention, extend protection to IDPs in Africa. These include:

• African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990; entered into forced November 1999) [text]
• Solemn Declaration on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa (2000) [text]
• Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (July 2003; entered into force October 2005) [text]
• Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (July 2004) [text]
• Great Lakes Protocol on the Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons (2006; entered into force 2008) [text]
• Great Lakes Protocol on the Property Rights of Returning Persons (2006; entered into force 2008) [text]

Note re. these last two instruments: A conference is being held 29-30 May 2009 to assess the impact of the Great Lakes Pact and Protocols two years on.

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities.