Internal exiles: What next for internally displaced persons?

This article evaluates the situation of internally displaced persons ( idps ) a decade after the first mandate for the Representative of the Secretary-General on idps . Paradoxically, this fastest growing category of war-affected populations has no institutional sponsor or agreed international legal framework, whereas refugees, whose numbers are diminishing, benefit from well developed institutional and legal efforts through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. At the outset of the 1990s the growing and massive numbers of idps and the changing nature of warfare suggested that what formerly had seemed a blemish was actually an ugly structural scar. In 1992 the UN Commission on Human Rights created the mandate, and the UN Secretary-General designated Francis M Deng to assume it. The independently financed Project on Internal Displacement, which he co-directs with Roberta Cohen, was set up specifically to support the mandate, an interesting model for other cash-pressed rapporteurs on human rights. Productivity and output have been impressive: a normative framework is in place and international discourse has changed, guiding principles are circulating, and institutions have begun to emphasise the particular problems of idps . However, there is no capacity to undertake systematic monitoring or follow-up of previous visits to countries that continue to flout international decisions. Greater in-depth analyses are prerequisites for better policy and advocacy. A permanent mandate and more adequate funding are required.