OCHA's IDP protection role defended

The UN's Humanitarian Coordinator in Angola, Eric de Mul, has dismissed as "ill-informed" a report by Human Rights Watch that accused the United Nations and Angolan government of not doing enough to protect displaced people.

"What I take exception to is this ill-informed, badly-argued case is brought forward by an organisation we consider quite serious and we're disappointed," De Mul, who is also the UN Development Programme's (UNDP) Representative in Angola, told IRIN on Thursday.

The Human Rights Watch report, released on Wednesday, said that as the government and UN agencies prepare to return 500,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their areas of origin by the end of the year, "human rights considerations are being marginalised within these plans".

The rights group said that "given the past protection problems faced by IDPs in Angola ... this is a serious omission". It accused the Angolan army and police of beatings, sexual violence, extortion and exploitation of displaced people during the country's long civil war.

It added that IDPs "continue to face serious security threats, including harassment by government forces, restrictions on free movement, and possible forced return to areas where they would be at risk of political persecution and human rights abuses".

Human Rights Watch charged that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), responsible for the coordination of IDP protection issues, "was overstretched with other responsibilities and lacks experience with protection efforts". It instead recommended that donors should provide funding for an expanded protection role for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

"[The report] reads like a silly turf battle between UNHCR and OCHA," De Mul said. "My perception is that whenever an organisation is doing very well, as OCHA is doing, it creates a reaction from other organisations who want to bring them down."

The humanitarian coordinator said that OCHA "stepped into a void where nobody was doing anything" and ensured that norms drawn up by the UN Secretary-General's Representative on Internally Displaced Persons, Francis Deng, were included in national legislation. "Those norms are going to be applied to the returnees," stressed De Mul.

But according to Human Rights Watch, "these legislative measures would be particularly commendable if they did not suffer from a key shortcoming - lack of implementation".

However, De Mul noted: "In the provinces there is quite a strong constituency to ensure that the norms are respected. In 14 out of the 18 provinces, OCHA ran training courses for the army and police and government officials. A whole lot of people were trained in the area of IDP protection and human rights. In these provinces participants have developed and drafted provincial protection plans. Moreover, OCHA works directly with IDP communities to inform them and make them aware of their rights.

"I'm not saying the situation is ideal, we're dealing with four million IDPs, but a lot of work is being done to make sure problems don't occur ... We have trained and sensitised people to create a constituency of people in the provinces to try and help when things go wrong. It's better than writing reports."

"[Human Rights Watch] are looking for something to attack," said de Mul. "UNHCR has hardly any presence in the provinces. While we have a structure that is working, they are asking donors to finance UNHCR."