A/HRC/29/34
47.
As the Special Rapporteur pointed out in the joint note to the Secretary-General
in October 2014 with Valerie Amos, António Guterres and William Lacy Swing:
The displaced are often excluded from longer-term development and institutional planning. If
left unaddressed, protracted displacement generates further marginalization, inequality,
fragility, vulnerability and erodes people’s resilience. This poses a serious impediment to all
present pillars of sustainable development both for the displaced persons and host
communities. Development actors need to increase their engagement from the onset of a crisis
to ensure that the development dimensions of displacement are addressed. The post-2015
development agenda therefore needs to address protracted displacement by ensuring effective
support for durable solutions.17
48.
Displacement commonly leaves homes, infrastructure, businesses and
livelihoods in ruins, and requires extensive reconstruction and socioeconomic development
projects. The impacts on communities and the psychological well-being of IDPs also
require attention to rebuild functioning communities. Where IDPs return to environments of
previous conflict, development actors can introduce elements of community cohesion,
justice and reconciliation into development projects that work across previously conflictaffected communities as key development and peacebuilding initiatives.
49.
A consideration of some of the proposed sustainable development goals through
an internal displacement lens, informed by IDP standards, and the work and visits of the
Special Rapporteur and his predecessors, demonstrates the clear rationale for dedicated
attention to IDPs.
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
50.
IDPs often lose their homes, land, possessions, livelihoods and their financial
resources. They are among the poorest of the poor and may be made more vulnerable by
hostility and insecurity, as well as by the trauma of displacement and the breakdown of
community cohesion. They are likely to have weaker and less established coping
mechanisms than other poor communities, and what resources they do have are likely to be
targeted towards basic survival. Owing to their unique circumstances, while their coping
mechanisms, employment and income-generating activities may improve over time, the
poverty experienced by IDPs is likely to be more extreme and persistent than poverty
experienced by others in society and requires dedicated programmes to address it.
Consequently, the target to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere by 2030
will be impossible to meet without tackling the situation of IDPs.
51.
During his visit to Haiti in July 2014, the Special Rapporteur noted that one of
the main obstacles in the search for durable solutions for IDPs remained the extreme
poverty from which a large portion of the population suffered and which particularly
affected those displaced by the 2010 earthquake. In that context, the Special Rapporteur
further reaffirmed the primary responsibility of the Government to work towards rightsbased development approaches to alleviating poverty that incorporated durable solutions for
IDPs.
Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote
sustainable agriculture
52.
Hunger and food insecurity are frequently the most pressing problems for IDPs.
Having lost access to lands and livelihoods, their ability to produce or purchase food may
be limited, leaving them heavily reliant on humanitarian aid or the charitable donations of
17
Joint note from OCHA, UNHCR, IOM and the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally
displaced persons to the United Nations Secretary-General (October 2014).
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