African Union discusses new convention on the internally displaced

Posted on | November 12, 2009 | No Comments

On October 22-23, heads of state gathered at a historic African Union meeting in Kampala. The aim of this special summit was to discuss the root causes of forced displacement, and to adopt a new convention in order to protect the rights of internally displaced people.

Even as the number of refugees decline, the phenomenon of internal displacement continues to expand in Africa. Earlier this year, an estimated 11.6 million people on the African continent were internally displaced – that’s about 45 percent of the world’s IDPs. During the course of the last year, about 2 million people were newly displaced.

The convention discussed during the meeting covers not only armed conflict, but also the major causes of displacement. This includes obligations that governments have towards their citizens who flee distasters and people who are removed from their land when development projects take over.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, who were speaking on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said the following during the summit: “Everyone displaced by conflict or natural disaster is an individual. A person, likely a woman or a child, who may be undernourished and living in fear of recruitment or rape. A person whose potential remains unrealized, with dreams unfulfilled and contributions foregone. You have come together to forge a better future”.

Read more here, or take a look at UNHCR’s photostream on Flickr here. Also have a look at this CNN article, published today, discussing the same issue.

Source: UNHCR.

Written by Fanny Johansson

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