Who is Monitoring Palestinian IDPs in the Occupied West Bank?
Everyone knows that the Wall Israel is constructing in the West Bank is causing damage; land is being annexed, the ecosystem is destabilized, a strict permit system is imposed in the closed military zones, houses are destroyed, businesses are closed etc... but, what does this really entail? How are the Palestinian people coping? They are forced to move.
Who are these new internally displaced persons (IDP), are they displaced for the firsttimeorrefugeessuffering multiple displacement, where are they from and where are they now, why did they move, are they in need of protection and/or assistance? These are just some of the pressing questions that remain unaddressed. In fact, little is known about these new forcibly displaced persons. Not only is little known about them, little is also known about who is responsible to monitor their displacement, provide assistance and protection.
While the General Assembly has requested a registry to monitor the damages caused by the construction of the Wall, nobody seemed to have envisaged that the Wall could be generating a new wave of displacement. So who then, should be responsible for these new IDPs? The primary responsibility for IDPs lies with national authorities, in this case, the occupying power. But Israel, as is well-known, has been unwilling to meet its responsibilities to ensure respect for humanitarian and human rights law in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories.
So who else? Here, there might be some light. Indeed, since 1999, the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) has shaped a mechanism and recently published a paper called the Collaborative Response to Situations of Internal Displacement (Collaborative Response). Due to the large number of IDPs, an estimated 20 million worldwide, no single UN agency has been identifiedasthesoleresponsible agency. Instead, a response to the IDP crisis has been conceptualized to include “a broad range of governmental and non-governmental actors [that] work together...on the basis of their individual mandates and expertise.”
The Collaborative Response spells out a clear Action Plan to assess the type of protection and assistance required by the IDPs. The Response also includes setting up a Country Team responsible for the implementation of the Plan. The Plan puts protection as a core objective; all UN agencies that have a protection mandate should pursue activities reinforcing the protection of IDPs’ fundamental rights and work with the country team to monitor, report, manage information and advocate with the authorities.
The Collaborative Response recommends that labor be divided among all relevant UN agencies, but firstspells out the basic steps to follow: first, collect, analyze and disseminate information on the objectives/needs of the IDPs; second, establish a mechanism for the coordination of agencies dealing with IDPs and consider the creation of an IDP working group or forum; third, identify the role of agencies and their specific responsibilities to ensure a good division of labor based on their expertise and capacity.
To implement the Collaborative Response, a whole set of actors at the international and local levels need to be involved. Internationally, the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) is mandated by the General Assembly to ensure inter-agency coordination of protection and assistance to IDPs and can, when necessary, bring issues to the Secretary-General and the Security Council. In addition, the Inter-Agency Internal Displacement Division (within UNHCR) has been established to promote a predictable and concerted response and assist country teams. The Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons has been mandated to address the complex problem of internal displacement while the IASC stands as the inter-agency forum for consultation on all matters regarding IDPs.
At the local level, there should be a Humanitarian and/or Resident Coordinator (HC/RC) who strategically ensures protection and assistance to IDPs. More precisely, some of the HC/RC responsibilities are to consult with national and local authorities in order to evaluate their capacity to respond to the needs of IDPs; suggest to the government and local authorities the appointment of a focal point within their structures on issues of internal displacement; lead the process of full consultation between different agencies in order to establish a procedural roadmap so as to avoid gaps; oversee the implementation of the Action Plan by the country team, and emphasize protection.
As a support to the HC/RC, the OfficefortheCoordinationofHumanitarianAffairs(OCHA)isusuallydeployed. OCHA is responsible to gain access to IDPs and other vulnerable groups; collect, analyze and disseminate IDP-relevant information; support the development of the Common Humanitarian Action Plan and Consolidated Appeal and ensure the inclusion of IDP concerns therein; organize and participate in inter-agency assessments; and convene coordination forums. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRC) may also be involved as its mandate include protection and assistance to the most vulnerable.
Now that the main components of the Collaborative Response are known, it is necessary to findtheUNagencies responsible to implement the Collaborative Response in the OPT. After some discussions with various UN agencies working in the OPT, there is no clear conclusion. What we do know, however, is that no UN agency has started work on the question of IDPs and no Humanitarian and/or Resident Coordinator has, so far, been named for the occupied Palestinian Territories.
While the OfficeoftheUnitedNationsSpecialCoordinator(UNSCO)istheoverallUNcoordinator,its role is mainly a political one, and may not be the best body to oversee the implementation of the Collaborative Response. OCHA and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) may be in a better position to implement the Response. The UN Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) may also have a role to play, especially for Palestinian refugees displaced by the Wall and if the UN considers that IDPs fall within UNRWA’s mandate to provide protection “to those in need of assistance as a result of continued hostilities.”
However, in order to determine which agency should have the lead role and where the HC/RC should be based, consultation among the UN agencies is required. Currently, different UN agencies participate in the OHCHR Human Rights Working Group where the question of IDPs is being discussed.