UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, welcomes South Sudan’s accession this month to the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, also known as the Kampala Convention.
South Sudan becomes the 28th African Union Member State that has acceded to the Convention, the world’s first and only regional legally binding instrument for the protection and assistance of internally displaced people (IDPs).
“Given the pressing mass displacement challenges facing South Sudan, accession to the Kampala Convention is a significant milestone for the protection and assistance of almost two million internally displaced South Sudanese,” said UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Volker Türk.
More than four million people, including an estimated 1.8 million IDPs, find themselves forcibly displaced from or within South Sudan owing to conflict and violence.
IDPs often face heightened risks, violations and sexual violence because of their displacement, while they struggle to access their rights and basic protection. As a result, they remain in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
Accession to the Kampala Convention is an affirmation by States of their primary responsibility to protect, assist and provide solutions for IDPs. The Convention also calls for national and regional actions to prevent arbitrary displacement, to ensure IDPs are protected and assisted, and to support durable solutions.
UNHCR, which supported the African Union, including through the process of drafting the Convention, supports governments in ensuring its incorporation into domestic law. In collaboration with the African Commission on International Law, UNHCR has assisted the development and dissemination of a model law on the Kampala Convention.
Globally, 41 million people remain displaced inside their own countries as a result of armed conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations.
To address internal displacement across Africa and to provide a legal framework for the protection and assistance of IDPs, the Kampala Convention was adopted at a meeting of the African Union (AU) in October 2009. This year marks ten years since its adoption.
UNHCR urges AU Member States who have not yet done so to ratify and implement these conventions.
Original source: UNHCR
Published on 14 June 2019
