Focus on IDPs

This resolution (A/HRC/20/L.14) on the "Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons" was recently adopted by the UN Human Rights Council.  The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) calls it an "historical resolution" because it is, "for the first time, independent from the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on IDPs, representing a strengthened commitment from UN Member States to recognise their own role in promoting and protecting the human rights of IDPs."  For an analysis, read this post on TerraNullius.

The resolution also acknowledged the twentieth anniversary of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.  The first Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons, as the position was then named, was Francis Deng, appointed in 1992. Walter Kälin served next, as the Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.  Chaloka Beyani is the current mandate holder.  For more information about his activities, visit his profile page on the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement site.

Other publications:

Conflict-Induced Internally Displaced Persons in Afghanistan: Interpretation of Data as of 31 May 2012 (UNHCR, July 2012) [text via ReliefWeb]

"Crise militaro-politique interne et santé psychophysique des personnes déplacées internes (PDIs): le cas de la Côte d’Ivoire," Santé Publique, vol. 24, no. HS (2012) [full-text]

The Internal Displacement of the Roma, Ashkali, & Egyptians in the Former Yugoslavia and Their Denial of an Effective Remedy (SSRN, 2010; posted Aug. 2012) [text]

Mainstreaming IDP Principles in Capacity Building Efforts: A Chance Missed in Kosovo (TerraNullius, July 2012) [text]

Web site:

Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS) [access]  
- "JIPS was set up to support the preparation, implementation and analysis phases of profiling IDP situations" by "collecting reliable information about IDPs, disaggregated by sex, age and location... ."  It is hosted by UNHCR in Geneva.  JIPS also had a hand in developing the Profiling and Assessment Resource Kit (PARK) database, which makes "methodologies, tools and other practical resources used in previous profiling and assessment exercises readily available to practitioners around the world."

And last but not least...

Here is another shout-out to readers to take a few minutes to complete a survey of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) web site.  The survey will close on 7 September 2012, and while the results will not be made public, they will provide IDMC with a better sense of how best to cater to the information needs of users and how to improve their design and structure accordingly.

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.