AFRICA: Shining the spotlight on the displaced
NAIROBI, 15 October 2009 (IRIN) – Forty years after the rights of Africas refugees were enshrined in a landmark convention, the continent’s leaders are due to make legal history again by adopting a new instrument to assist people displaced within the borders of their own country (såkaldte hjemstavnsfordrevne).
The African “Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons” in Africa is the main agenda for the heads of state summit on refugees, returnees and IDPs in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, from 19-23 October.
– It will be the first legally binding international instrument on IDPs (hjemstavnsfordrevne) with a continental scope, and UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) hopes that it will translate into better lives for African IDPs, the agency’s spokesman Andrej Mahecic said in Geneva on 8 September.
Advocacy groups, including IDP Action, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights, and Refugees International, have hailed the convention. However, they noted, the initial draft contained elements that were vague or inconsistent with other international human rights standards.
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