A/HRC/35/27
seek innovative approaches, concrete actions, and new commitments to their protection in
displacement-affected countries.
61.
The Special Rapporteur will promote the international normative framework for the
protection of children, and the responsibility of States as the primary duty holders, to
protect internally displaced children and address their needs. She will collaborate with key
international and national partners, assisting them to strengthen their work, including
UNICEF and UNHCR, with which she will seek strategic partnerships on this issue. While
excellent resources exist, there must be better awareness of them, and technical assistance
to implement them in practice. Positive practices should be identified and applied elsewhere
where displaced children are at risk. Initiatives to protect girls, particularly in conflict
situations, should also be brought into focus and better deployed, as a matter of urgency.
62.
The Special Rapporteur will gather positive practices, guidelines and case studies,
and will dedicate a section of her website to these issues in order to share relevant
information from a wide range of sources. She will seek collaboration with relevant parts of
the United Nations system, and with other international organizations and NGOs as well as
national human rights institutions. On the basis of the information received, she will
communicate to States issues of concern relating to displaced children and will seek a
constructive dialogue with States that is aimed at finding rapid and effective solutions to
situations of concern involving displaced children.
D.
Enhancing the role of national human rights institutions in the
protection of internally displaced persons
63.
Human rights violations frequently precede or trigger displacement and occur during
or after displacement. As independent human rights bodies and monitors of human rights
situations, national human rights institutions have a critical role in protection of internally
displaced persons. There are several examples of countries, including Kenya, Mexico,
Nigeria, the Philippines, Uganda and Ukraine, whose national human rights institutions
have played prominent roles in protection of internally displaced persons. Those roles have
included advocacy and awareness-raising, training for officials and others in international
human rights and humanitarian law and standards, monitoring of the rights of internally
displaced persons, registration of individual complaints and investigation of specific cases
so that perpetrators are held accountable. Their role in advocacy for domestic legislation to
protect the rights of internally displaced persons should also be mentioned.
64.
The Special Rapporteur will strengthen the mandate’s engagement with national
human rights institutions regarding protection of internally displaced persons, will engage
in a systematic way with them and their regional networks to benefit from their
experiences, practices and lessons learned, and will seek opportunities to enhance
cooperation. She will dedicate one of her thematic reports to elaborating the role of national
human rights institutions in the protection of internally displaced persons, and to this end
she intends to hold a consultative session with selected national human rights institutions
during her tenure to examine their existing and potential roles. In addition, she intends to
send a questionnaire to relevant national human rights institutions and to seek to collaborate
with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions in this regard.
E.
Increasing the attention to neglected drivers of internal displacement
65.
The Special Rapporteur recognizes the mandate’s responsibility to raise awareness
of — and support action to prevent or address — neglected causes of displacement, and to
raise awareness about populations of internally displaced persons who require greater
visibility and attention. These drivers include development projects and generalized
violence, and may also include complex and interlinked causes, such as the intersection
between conflict, development and business interests. The number of people internally
displaced by such factors may run to millions worldwide, who do not feature in the annual
displacement figures as these commonly reflect only persons who have been internally
displaced by conflict and disasters.
16
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents