Helpless within borders: the case of adequate international human rights protection for IDPs in Northern Uganda and the Darfur region of Sudan

Abstract

"The rise in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sudan and Uganda is in no small part, due not only to states' incapacity to protect their own people, but also to a direct attack by states on selected communities, or on insurgent groups. In Sudan, there is a large amount of information pointing to the responsibility of the Sudanese government in the human rights violations committed against the IDPs in Darfur. In Uganda, the majority of the displaced harbour considerable anger towards the government for having forced them out of their homes and then being unable to protect and provide for them, and in many cases being guilty of violations of their rights. The problem is aggravated by the facts that IDPs have no specific set of international instruments or a Convention in their favour, and there is no dedicated UN agency to turn to. The concept of state sovereignty still takes centre stage, and IDPs remain under the 'protection' of their own states, which in many cases are responsible for their plight. International humanitarian assistance is limited to the provision of basic necessities like food, shelter and medicine, while measures that ensure respect for the physical safety and the human rights of IDPs remain inadequate. The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement particularise general human rights principles to the situation of the internally displaced, however they have no binding authority, and therefore do not bind states, neither are they enforceable by the IDPs. Currently, reliance is placed upon international humanitarian law and the existing international human rights law, but international humanitarian law only applies in situations of armed conflict. Consequently, this study proceeds from the presumption that the governments of Sudan and Uganda have failed to protect the IDPs within their jurisdictions, hence the need for stronger international protection. The study is aimed at addressing the specific problem of the lack of adequate international human rights protection for the IDPs from the time of displacement, to the time displacement ends. Emphasis of the study is placed on displacements resulting from armed conflicts, because these are the most rampant and most problematic in Africa. Darfur and Northern Uganda are the particular focus of this study because they are the most affected regions in Africa today." -- Introduction.