RESOURCE: Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement

[NorthernSpy]

The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement were presented to -- and adopted by -- the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in April of 1998. I am posting them here as a resource for those of us who wish to combat the reported attempts by local elites to prevent displaced persons from returning their homes in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Also, this commentary is worth looking at for more information about the Guiding Principles.

Anyone who has other resources or ideas to share, please feel free to post them in this thread! We CAN stop the schemes to turn New Orleans into an ethnically-cleansed Disneyland version of its former self. And familiarizing ourselves with the Guiding Principles may be a good place to start.

So -- bring on the Principles! As you'll see, it's kind of sobering to note how many of these principles have been violated so far already.


(edited to add: this is a resource to guide future activism, so I've posted it for discussion here GD. This document didn't seem appropriate for the official disaster relief resources thread , because that thread focuses on listing charitable organizations that people may wish to donate to).

INTRODUCTION: SCOPE AND PURPOSE (1)

1. These Guiding Principles address the specific needs of internally displaced persons worldwide. They identify rights and guarantees relevant to the protection of persons from forced displacement and to their protection and assistance during displacement as well as during return or resettlement and reintegration.

2. For the purposes of these Principles, internally displaced persons are persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.

3. These Principles reflect and are consistent with international human rights law and international humanitarian law. They provide guidance to:

(a) The Representative of the Secretary-General on internally displaced persons in carrying out his mandate;

(b) States when faced with the phenomenon of internal displacement;

(c) All other authorities, groups and persons in their relations with internally displaced persons; and

(d) Intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations when addressing internal displacement.

4. These Guiding Principles should be disseminated and applied as widely as possible.