Internally displaced in Iraq. photo: UNHCR:s

Meeting new needs

“Humanitarian action cannot be a substitute for timely and firm action at the political level”

Former High Commissioner Sadako Ogata

While the 1951 Convention, with its emphasis on individual persecution, still forms the core of UNHCR’s mandate, the work of the Office has evolved to meet the needs of refugee flows in recent decades. The General Assembly has expanded UNHCR’s mandate to extend protection to groups of refugees rather than individuals, and, at times, to provide assistance and protection to internally displaced persons and other “persons of concern” who are in “refugee-like” situations. In typical situations today, UNHCR provides protection and assistance to people fleeing combinations of persecution, armed conflict and violations of human rights.

Some regional instruments developed in earlier years reflect this development. The OAU Convention of 1969 in Africa and the Cartagena Declaration of 1984 in Central America broaden the refugee definition to include a large number of people who may not be covered by the 1951 Convention.

Internally Displaced Persons

Initially, UNHCR’s mandate was limited to refugees outside their country of origin. In recent years, however, the UN General Assembly and the Secretary-General have called on UNHCR to protect and assist particular groups of internally displaced people who are in a refugee-like situation in their home countries because of persecution, armed conflict or generalised violence. Their own government may be unable or unwilling to protect them and the internally displaced persons need humanitarian aid for their survival.

However, whereas refugees have an established system of international protection and assistance, those who are displaced within their national borders remain within the domestic jurisdiction and under the sovereignity of the state concerned. No single UN or other agency has been given statutory responsibility for their protection. However, the Special Representative of the Secretary- General on Internally Displaced Persons, Francis Deng, has developed Guiding Principles relating to the Internally Displaced Persons. The resolution on Guiding Principles was adopted on 17 April 1998 at the 54th session of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. They provide guidance to UN-agencies, governments and non-governmental organisations to address the specific needs of internally displaced persons worldwide.

Of the 21 million persons assisted by UNHCR in 2000, more than 7 million were internally displaced persons and almost 1 million were returnees. It is not easy to ascertain the number and location of the world’s internally displaced people. There are institutional, political and operational obstacles. Despite that, there is a broad international consensus that the global population of internally displaced persons is somewhere between 20–25 million in 1999.

However, humanitarian assistance and protective efforts to internally displaced persons should not replace the right of people to leave a situation of danger and to seek sanctuary elsewhere, whether in another country or another part of their state. It should not replace the right to seek asylum.