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In 1992, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the request of the UN Commission on Human Rights (now the UN Human Rights Council), appointed Francis M. Deng of Sudan as the first Representative of the UN Secretary-General on internally displaced persons. The mandate of the Representative included: promoting and disseminating the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement at the national, regional and international levels, undertaking country missions, and conducting policy-oriented research.
In April 2004, the Commission called upon the Secretary-General to create a new mechanism to build on the work of the prior Representative and to bring a further focus on the human rights of internally displaced persons. Accordingly, in September 2004, the Secretary-General appointed Walter Kälin as the new Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons.
The Representative presents annual reports to the Human Rights Council (formerly the Commission on Human Rights) and the General Assembly.
Mandate
Building on the work of his predecessor and pursuant to UN Commission on Human Rights resolution 2004/55, the Representative’s role is to:
(1) engage in coordinated advocacy in favor of the protection and
respect of the human rights of IDPs,
(2) continue and enhance dialogues with Governments as well as
non-governmental organizations and other actors,
(3) strengthen the international response to internal displacement,
and
(4) mainstream the human rights of IDPs into all relevant parts of
the UN system.
Activities
Among the many activities undertaken by the Representative is the dissemination of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. He promotes awareness of and dialogue about the Guiding Principles, including through supporting their translation and wide dissemination and the convening of seminars with governments, international organizations, regional bodies and NGOs.
The Representative also encourages the development of national laws and policies on internal displacement. As part of this work, the Representative is developing an Internal Displacement Law and Policy Manual to assist national authorities develop laws and policies on internal displacement based on the Guiding Principles.
The Representative has developed an annual course on the law of internal displacement in collaboration with the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, Sanremo and with the support of the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement. The course is attended by high-level military and civil Government officials from different parts of the world.
Finally, the Representative sponsors research into specific human rights of the internally displaced as recognized in the Guiding Principles, such as rights concerning property, political participation, return and resettlement and displacement by natural disasters or development projects.
For further information about the activities of the Representative, visit his website at: www.ohchr.org/english/issues/idp/index.htm.
Current Representative
Dr. Walter Kälin is a Swiss legal scholar and professor of constitutional and international law at the Faculty of Law, University of Bern. Dr. Kälin served as chair of the committee of legal experts that developed the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and has authored numerous books on the subject, including the Annotations to the Guiding Principles (American Society of International Law, Brookings-SAIS Project on Internal Displacement, 2000).
In addition to his responsibilities as Representative, Dr. Kälin is currently a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (since 2003). From 1991-1992, Kälin served as the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Kuwait under Iraqi Occupation. |
