United Nations panel calls for 'national ownership' on internal displacement issues

The United Nations (UN) high-level panel on September 29 released the much-anticipated report drawing attention to the internal displacement across the globe and called for the nationally-owned solutions for over 55 million people displaced within their own countries. The United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement published the report to take a “development-oriented approach” to the solutions for their citizens and resident who were forced to displace due to violence, conflicts, disasters and the impacts of climate change.

As per the official UN statement, the high-level panel presented its report to UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres at an event on Wednesday calling on the global community, civil society as well as the private sector to ramp up the collective action to end the protracted displacement. The report noted a “collective failure” to prevent, address and even resolve internal displacement but also identified real opportunities to bring about shifts in the approach to end “unnecessary suffering.”

Guterres called for ‘restoring sense of normalcy’

UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement “For several decades, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) around the world has been growing, reaching record highs year after year. Humanitarian assistance is vital to help them survive. But more is needed to restore a sense of normalcy and provide solutions.” the high-level panel’s report has laid emphasis that internally displaced persons also known as IDPs must be able to exercise their fundamental rights and not to be seen or treated only as people who need short-term assistance. The report also noted that presently, IDPs are not systematically integrated in Government policies or the peace processes. 

The panel co-chair Donald Kaberuka said in a statement, “It is in the best interest of Governments to own this issue, because they cannot achieve the Sustainable Development Goals without improving the lives of all IDPs, from displaced women and children to older persons.”

The panel has further called on the UN to elevate its leadership and support the governments across the globe “through more predictable and consistent action across the humanitarian, development, peace, disaster and climate dimensions of internal displacement.” Additionally, the panel has recommended the establishment of a ‘Global Fund on Internal Displacement Solutions.’ Panel Co-Chair Federica Mogherini also said, “Given the current state of conflicts and trajectory of urbanization and climate change, the time to act is now. Maintaining the status quo is not an option.”

IMAGE: OCHA/Nicole Lawrence