The Responsibility to Protect Internally Displaced Persons in Africa

Abstract

This article explores the responsibility to protect (R2P) as an organizing concept for preventing, addressing and finding durable solutions to internal displacement in Africa. While the most innovative norms for protecting the forcibly displaced have been conceptualized in Africa, they have not durably addressed displacement, due to limitations in implementation. R2P has similarly faced criticisms emanating from a lack of clarity and distrust. Restated norms underlying frameworks for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and R2P complement each other, and can be operationalized simultaneously through a more credible regional approach, to encourage effective protection of IDPs in Africa. The article explores pillar one, pillar two and the non-coercive elements of pillar three of R2P, and its underlying moral principles, using Kenya as a case study of the process of seeking to secure state responsibility for the protection of displaced civilians victimized by mass atrocities.

Human Security and Sustainable Development in East Africa

“…But at the root of the internal displacement problem sits poor governance and, in most instances, a lack of political will to domesticate and/ or implement provisions of the UNGPID and Kampala Convention both of which act as overarching frameworks for the development/ formulation of national laws and policies aimed at protecting IDPs (Adeola, 2021b;Adeola & Orchard, 2020;Ferris, 2017;Kamungi, 2010Kamungi, , 2011Kamungi & Klopp, 2007;Lwabukuna, 2021). In their investigation of the domestication of the two frameworks around the world, Adeola and Orchard (2020) identify the East African countries that have introduced laws and policies aimed at protecting IDPs and when such laws/ policies were first introduced namely Burundi in 2000, Ethiopia in 2017, Kenya in 2012, Somalia in 2014, South Sudan in 2011, Sudan in 2009, and Uganda in 2004.…”