16/10/2008 Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Strasbourg, 16.10.2008 – Ten years after the adoption of the UN's Guiding Principles on internal displacement, the problem of internally-displaced people is far from being eradicated on European soil, according to the head of PACE's Migration Committee.
Addressing an Oslo conference to evaluate progress since the adoption of the UN Principles, Corien W. A. Jonker (Netherlands, EPP/CD) pointed out that there are still around 2.5 million internally displaced people in Europe – many of whom fled their homes more than a decade ago – while new conflicts, such as the one in Georgia, are creating fresh waves of uprooted people.
"Contrary to all expectations, the number of IDPs in Europe has not drastically decreased," Mrs Jonker said. "Somewhere, our efforts and policies have failed, despite international human rights and humanitarian norms becoming increasingly more elaborate."
She pointed out that legal mechanisms alone – whether under evolving national laws or under the European Convention and other Council of Europe instruments – have their limits: "They cannot provide protection if the root causes of displacement are not tackled and eradicated ... until lasting political solutions are found, any long-term solution to the problems of displaced persons will be difficult to deliver."
Mrs Jonker also said that if the international community had actively engaged in finding a solution for the "peaceful, safe and timely return" of IDPs, the recent ethnic cleansing in the Russian-controlled zone of Georgia could have been prevented.