"The Human Rights of IDPs in Uganda - A Few Encouraging Steps"
Executive Summary:
Objectives of the Legal Cooperation Programme:
The
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has been
conducting the Legal Cooperation Programme (LCP) since
1993 to strengthen the influence and capacity of human
rights defenders vis-à-vis the government and the
international community. Through the LCP, the FIDH provides
a forum of exchange between human rights defenders and
State authorities on key human rights issues in the country.
The principle of the LCP is that the forum is only a first step
and that the outcome, the recommendations adopted at the
end of the workshop, are thoroughly pursued thereafter.
i. The preparatory mission took place from 13-17 November 2000.
It gave FIDH-FHRI the opportunity to establish contacts
with high-level authorities and NGOs, and to explore the themes
which would most benefit the get-together of human rights
defenders and authorities. The FIDH-FHRI delegation met with
the Minister of Justice, the Minister for Refugees and Disaster
Preparedness, the Prime Ministers Office, the Acting Chief of
Military Intelligence and Security, a Judge of the Supreme
Court, the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), as well
as the ambassadors of donor countries: the European Union,
France, and Great Britain. As there had been little attention for
the rights of IDPs, a major problem in Uganda, it was decided
that this should be the focus of the workshop.
ii. The workshop "The Rights of the Internally Displaced
Persons in Uganda" took place from 7- 11 May 2001.
The
event was the first to explicitly focus on the human rights of
IDPs in Uganda. FIDH-FHRI built on the last IDP meeting in
Kampala (March 1999) hosted by the NRC and the Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which had a more
humanitarian focus. The workshop achieved a dialogue
among IDP camp representatives and the government.
Solidarity was created among the IDP leaders from the North
and the West of Uganda (the main internal conflict zones),
and cooperation was strengthened among human rights and
humanitarian NGOs. This later led to the creation of the IDP
Core Group. The Recommendations (see below) were adopted
by the NGOs and authority representatives. The Minister for
Refugees and Disaster Preparedness met with the delegation
once again at the end of the workshop and promised to help
ensure the implementation of the Recommendations.
Participants: IDP camp leaders, NGOs from internal conflict
zones, Gulu and Kitgum from the North, and Kasese,
Bundibugwo, and Kabarole from the West, human rights and
humanitarian NGOs from Kampala and from the region of
IDPs, as well as police (one from the west), military (from the
Human Rights Desk), and the Ministry of Refugees and
Disaster Preparedness (which deals with IDPs).
Main highlights: The discussions focused on the rights of IDPs
as enshrined in the UN Guiding Principles on Internal
Displacement. In the context of Uganda, special focus was on
the right to return, the right to participation, the right to
property, and access to the law. The NGOs reiterated the
State’s responsibility and obligation to ensure the protection
of IDPs. Although recognising that relief provided to IDPs is
important, it is not an end in itself: root causes of the armed
conflict should be addressed. IDP representatives and NGO
emphasised the right to return. Resource persons from Kenya
and Somalia shared their experiences on IDPs in Rwanda and
Somalia, and the issue of access to the law. The workshop
also provided an overview of the situation of IDPs in Uganda
(their whereabouts, problems and needs). It served to remind
authorities not to add to the problem by violating the rights of
an already vulnerable group. The IDP camp representatives
expressed to the Minister their weariness as to just how
temporary their situation was, given that they have been
hearing this for over ten years.
The Minister for Refugees and Disaster Preparedness said
that the Government of Uganda was aware that IDPs have the
same rights as its other nationals, their main concern being to
ensure that the IDPs have water, sanitation and medical care,
other rights not withstanding. In an emergency situation, the
Government may not be able protect other rights like access
to education as this situation is a temporary one. He also
said that the Government had tried to protect the rights of
IDPs through peaceful conflict resolution and deployment of
UDPF at boarders, passing of the Amnesty Law, the
disarmament of Karamajong, encouragement of
humanitarian NGOs working with IDPs, and the establishment
of a Department of Disaster Management and Refugees. In
his conclusion, the Minister reiterated that the Government of
Uganda recognises the plight of IDPs and is committed to
protecting their rights.
Recommendations: A realistic number of recommendations
were adopted, each attributing tasks to the responsible body
(government ministries and officials, district authorities, OCHA, UHRC, and FHRI). The Recommendations included that
the Government of Uganda "continues to initiate and promote
dialogue with warring Parties and promote lasting solutions to
conflicts in the Country", that "there should be systematic
human rights monitoring by local and international monitors of
human rights violations of IDPs in Uganda and IDPs should
have enhanced protection and... prompt and adequate
recourse to all legal processes, including recourse to the court";
that "the Draft Bill on Disaster Management should take into
consideration the needs and rights of IDPs as stipulated in the
UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement" to be made
available to civil society; that Local District Units and Home
Guards be made aware of international human rights law; that
"an adequate proportion of the National budget should be
directed towards promoting the rights of IDPs and, in particular,
to their right not to fall below the nationally accepted average
standard of living"; that "IDPs and the general public should
have proper access to information and data concerning [their]
situation"; that the Guiding Principles be widely disseminated
and translated in relevant local languages; that the police
monitor the situation of human rights in the camps, in
particular those of women and children; that the temporary
return of IDPs be facilitated; that to "better protect the right of
IDPs to their property, District Land Boards should issue
Customary Certificates of Land Tenure"; that the Secretary-
General’s Representative for IDPs make a visit to Uganda as
soon as possible; and that FHRI create a specific programme
for campaigning on the rights of IDPs.
Media: There was media coverage which generally deplored
the IDP situation, bringing needed attention to the plight of
IDPs (see Annexes).
iii. Follow-up activities FIDH and FHRI undertook follow-up of
the workshop and its recommendations. The following are
some of the IDPs related activities:
– Wide dissemination of Recommendations locally and
internationally to relevant governmental officials, the Special
Representative of IDPs, UN agencies, and NGOs.
– OCHA (Uganda) continued to work with FHRI, and brought
the Recommendations to the "UN Conference on IDPs:
Lessons Learned and Future Mechanisms" in Oslo, Norway on
23 May 2001.
– FHRI initiated the IDP Core Group in the follow-up meeting,
supported by the Human Rights and Democratisation
Programme of Danida/EU, on 22 November 2001 to further
strengthen the network of cooperation for promoting and
protecting the rights of IDPs. The identified priorities of the
IDP Core Group formed at the meeting were: development of
a government policy on IDPs; addressing the insecurity; and
insufficient advocacy by civil society on behalf of IDPs as well
as district authorities on their plight.
– The Uganda Government issued a policy on IDPs in February
2002 A major breakthrough was the government’s decision to
draft a policy on internal displacement. The Office of the
Prime Minister and the Department for Disaster
Preparedness and UN OCHA began to work on "The National
Policy on Internal Displacement - Policy and Institutional
Framework." The most recent policy is from April 2002 and
refers to the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.
It contains provisions concerning the institutional
arrangements, including the functions of a national technical
committee responsible for monitoring human rights
violations, which is also the function of the District Disaster
Management Committee (DDMC). The draft policy has a
provision on protection of IDPs against arbitrary displacement
and during return. Property rights, family unification, food
security, shelter, clothing, education, health, water/sanitation,
resettlement kits, rehabilitation of infrastructure and
graduated tax are all included in the draft policy. The draft
provides for a protection sub-committee which has a joint
responsibility with the UHRC to monitor respect for the rights
of IDPs.
– ·Uganda ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on
the Rights of Children on the Involvement of Children in
Armed Conflict in March 2002 This convention states that
recruitment of children below the age of 18 is forbidden.
– ·The NGO Human Rights Focus (HURIFO) launched its report
"Between Two Fires - human rights violations in the ’protected’
camps" on 26 February 2002 Human rights violations by the
LRA and the UPDF are documented in several IDP camps in
the North. The report received world media coverage. No
government response was received at the time of the followup
mission.
iv. Follow-up Mission (18-23 March 2002).
The FIDH-FHRI
delegation met with the Ministry of State for Disaster
Preparedness and Refugees, the Commissioner for Disaster
Preparedness and Refugees, the Minister of State for Defense,
the UPDF Human Rights Desk, and the Inspector General of
Police. It also met with the UHRC, NGOs, and visited IDP camps
and their representatives in the North, mainly Pagak, Pabbo,
and Awer. The purpose was to assess the progress on the
implementation of the Recommendations.
The main findings were that there were many positive
developments (such as listed above) as well as the fact that
some IDPs have begun to return home in the West and the East.
The North remains the most difficult situation as the security of
IDPs is still not secured. Unfortunately, little coordination has
happened among stakeholders, in particular lack of
dissemination of important information, such as the recent
report of HURIFO documenting violations in the northern IDP
camps. The fact that the UN Guiding Principles on IDPs had
been translated into Luo was not widely known. Monitoring of
human rights violations in IDP camps, although improved in
some cases, was still not been carried out in a systematic
manner. A very positive feature was that OCHA shared the draft
policy with FHRI and other key groups. Government authorities
have been receptive and responsive during this mission, and
the Inter-Ministerial Committee seems to be moving on the
issues, though it could not yet be assessed to what extent. It
was concluded that continued strong coordination was
imperative for the successful implementation of the
recommendations on the rights of IDPs.