A/HRC/10/13 page 3 Introduction 1. This report focuses on three thematic issues: the status of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (the Guiding Principles) 10 years following their submission to the Commission on Human Rights; the protection of persons displaced by natural disaster; and the inclusion of the issue of internal displacement and the people it affects in peace processes. 2. The second part of this report addresses the Representative’s country missions and working visits, as well as other activities aimed at maintaining a constructive dialogue with Governments and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. The Representative thanks particularly those Governments which accepted and facilitated his visits, as well as international organizations, academics, and civil society groups working on the rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), for their helpful cooperation. He equally expresses his appreciation to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for their support for his mandate. I. THEMATIC ISSUES A. The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement: the recognized international framework for the protection of internally displaced persons 3. Ten years ago Francis Deng, the then Representative of the Secretary-General on internally displaced persons, presented the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement to the Commission on Human Rights.1 Addressing all phases of displacement - protection from displacement, protection and assistance during displacement, and guarantees for return, settlement, or reintegration in safety and dignity - the Guiding Principles set out the basic tenets of a human rights-based approach to protecting and assisting IDPs. The Representative, in line with his mandate, has continued his “efforts to further the dissemination, promotion and application of the Guiding Principles”.2 4. While the Guiding Principles themselves do not constitute a binding legal instrument, they “reflect and are consistent with international human rights law and international humanitarian law”.3 The annotations to the Guiding Principles, which the Representative recently updated, trace the legal foundations of each Guiding Principle in international treaty law and customary international law emerging from general practice accepted as law.4 The annotations underscore 1 E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2. 2 Human Rights Council resolution 6/32, para. 7 (c). 3 Guiding Principles, “Introduction: scope and purpose”, para. 3. 4 W. Kälin, Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement: Annotations (Washington, D.C., The American Society of International Law, 2008), available at http://www.asil.org/pdfs/stlp.pdf.