Internally Displaced Persons at the Fifty-Fourth Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 16 March-24 April 1998

1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 548-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. BAGSHAW
Refuge ◽  
1997 ◽  
pp. 41-44
Author(s):  
Tim Wichert

This article argues that protecting refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) is an issue of universal human rights. It then suggests the urgent need for the UN Commission on Human Rights, working in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and member states of the United Nations, to play more important roles in protecting and enhancing human rights. It also stresses the importance of appropriate follow-up to the calls for more commitment and better actions in this area.


Author(s):  
Roberta Cohen ◽  
Francis M. Deng

The concept of ‘sovereignty as responsibility’ is without question one of the foundations for the concept of the responsibility to protect (R2P). As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon observed in 2008, R2P is built on the ‘positive and affirmative concept of sovereignty as responsibility—a concept developed by . . . Francis Deng, and his colleagues at the Brookings Institution more than a decade ago’. This chapter discusses how the concept of sovereignty as responsibility developed from discussions about governance in Africa and from the application of human rights standards to the protection of internally displaced persons. It also identifies the differences in emphasis, scope, and usage between the concept and R2P.


Author(s):  
Shedrack Ekpa ◽  
Nuarrual Hilal Md Dahlan

The end of the cold war and the beginning of the new millennium brought with it a new phase in state relations in Africa as more persons became forcefully uprooted from their homes and their rights violated with impunity due to intractable internal conflicts amidst the Westphalian notion of sovereignty which frowns at interference in the internal affairs of any state which was the fulcrum upon which the United Nations (UN) and Organization of African Unity (OAU) was founded. This new awakening has increasingly made perception of sovereignty to be people oriented. In the case of the Africa which is the crux of this paper, the eventual change from OAU to AU was significant as the coming into force of African Union’s Constitutive Act and the Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons climaxed major twist in the Africa’s perception of sovereignty and the right of intervention in relation to internally displaced persons (IDPs) within the continent. This article examines briefly the historical evolution of the concept of sovereignty and the right of intervention and their implications in the African context, and being conceptual and doctrinal in approach it analyses the context and legality of the African Union’s right of intervention arising from the regional treaties vis-à-vis the United Nations Charter with a view to vindicating the much celebrated ‘decisive break from the past’. It concludes that African Union’s current stance represents a bold and grandiose expression that is sincerely tailored towards ensuring effective human rights protection and humanitarian assistance for over 13 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Africa. Finally, the article contributes significantly to the scholarly debates surrounding right of intervention in relation to internal displacement as its resolution will in one or the other helps government and other stakeholders in their quest to curtail the scourge of intra and inter-state violence in Africa. Keywords: African Union, Sovereignty, Intervention, Internally Displaced Persons, State Responsibility


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