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The ICRC's response to internal displacement: strengths, challenges and constraints

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2010

Jakob Kellenberger
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Abstract

The often highly complex and fluid nature of displacement on the ground makes coverage of IDPs' needs a difficult task, and a flexible response is required to fit different contexts. The ICRC's humanitarian response is guided by the vulnerability and the needs of all people affected by armed conflict and violence – including, of course, IDPs, whose vulnerability is often (but not automatically) exacerbated by their particular situation. The protection and assistance of IDPs therefore naturally lies at the heart of the ICRC's mandate and activities. In identifying and responding to needs, the ICRC looks at the whole context in which internal displacement occurs, as well as all the people affected. The aim is to promote self-reliance among vulnerable communities so as to avoid displacement, or to strengthen their capacity to host IDPs. Nevertheless, where needed, the ICRC also fills gaps by providing emergency aid in IDP camps, coordinating with other international organizations in order to optimize response.

Type
Displacement
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 91 , Issue 875: Displacement , September 2009 , pp. 475 - 490
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2009

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References

1 Including the Gereida camp – see the subsection below on “Prevention and the role of camps”.

2 Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2008, April 2009, p. 9, available at http://www.internal-displacement.org/idmc/website/resources.nsf/(httpPublications)/0605361027488A28C12575A90042305B?OpenDocument (visited 21 August 2009).

3 Article 17, Additional Protocol II (AP II).

4 For example: Arts 13-14, AP II; Jean-Marie Henckaerts and Louise Doswald-Beck, Customary International Humanitarian Law, Volume 1: Rules, ICRC, Geneva, 2005, Rules 1, 2, 7, 11 and 15.

5 Article 18, AP II; Henckaerts and Doswald-Beck, above note 4, Rule 56.

6 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, UN Doc. E/CN./4/1998/53/Add.2, 17 April 1998, reprinted in International Review of the Red Cross, No. 324, September 1998, pp. 545–556.

7 See United Nations, Humanitarian Response Review, United Nations, New York/Geneva, August 2005.

8 UN Security Council, 27th report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Organization Mission in the DRC, UN Doc. S/2009/160, 27 March 2009.

9 Katherine Haver, Out of Site: Building Better Responses to Displacement in the DRC by Helping Host Families, Oxfam International Research Report, September 2008, p. 10, available at http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/out-of-site-drc-0908.pdf (visited 25 August 2009).

10 It is estimated, for example, that a mere 20% of that vast country is accessible by road – see HIV in Humanitarian Situations, Democratic Republic of Congo: HIV Humanitarian Overview, available at http://www.aidsandemergencies.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=63&Itemid=132 (visited 28 August 2009).

11 UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Humanitarian Action Plan: Democratic Republic of Congo, 2009, p. 30 (map showing zones of acute malnutrition), available at http://www.rdc-humanitaire.net/IMG/pdf/2009_DRC_HAP_EN_FINAL_-2.pdf (visited 31 August 2009).

12 International Rescue Committee/Burnet Institute, Mortality in the DRC: an ongoing crisis, January 2008, available at http://www.theirc.org/resources/2007/2006-7_congomortalitysurvey.pdf (visited 24 August 2009), pp. ii – iii.

13 Haver, above note 9, p. 24.

14 OCHA, above note 11, p. 7.