New policy defines guidelines for handling IDPs

The Ugandan government has launched a comprehensive policy intended to guide the country's management of its internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as improve their quality of life. The 40-page document, launched on 24 February by the prime minister, Apollo Nsibambi, establishes the principles that will serve as a guide to government institutions, humanitarian organisations and development agencies as they provide assistance and protection to Uganda's IDPs. "The policy aims at promoting integrated and coordinated response mechanisms to address the effects of internal displacement through cooperation between relevant government institutions, development and humanitarian agencies and other stakeholders," Techeste Ahderom, a senior officer in the prime minister's office, said during the launch. The guidelines, whose development was supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Uganda, emphasises the rights of IDPs to education and health services, including access to psychosocial and post-traumatic stress treatment. It also commits the government to finding durable solutions to causes of displacement and facilitating the voluntary return, resettlement, integration and re-integration of the IDPs. Uganda has an estimated 1.4 million IDPs, most of whom are victims of the war in the north between government forces and rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Cattle raids in the northeast and east of the country have also led to displacement. Nsibambi said the policy would ensure that IDPs enjoyed the same rights and freedoms under the constitution as all other Ugandans. While implementing the policy, national and local authorities in Uganda are directed to take into account international and regional instruments ratified by the country that provide guidelines to the protection and treatment of IDPs. The new policy apportions duties at various levels, outlining institutional arrangements, as well as roles and responsibilities through the establishment of multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary structures. These structures will incorporate government ministries, humanitarian and development agencies and other stakeholders, thereby ensuring timely protection and provision of assistance to displaced persons. The Department of Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, in the prime minister's office, is the lead agency in the endeavour, working closely with local NGOs, UN agencies and other international relief organisations to make certain that responses from all stakeholders are well coordinated. National and local committees will be established to develop an integrated approach to managing and mitigating the effects of internal displacement. "This will entail instituting well-defined reporting mechanisms for evaluation of the responses to internal displacement and strengthening early warning mechanisms as a preventive measure," the policy document states. Many of the committees have international agencies incorporated into them. Other issues the policy tackles include the security of IDPs and their freedom of movement, particularly protection against what the government document calls "arbitrary displacement". Both the government and UNDP are working on the implementation of the policy. The government has already appointed IDP officials in the five districts of northern Uganda affected by the problem. The Ugandan administration has also asked people in some areas of the north to vacate their homes and move to IDP camps, where they are safer from the random, brutal attacks on civilians that characterise the LRA's rebellion. Representatives of Uganda's development partners, attending the launch in the nation's capital, Kampala, commended the government on the new policy, which they said would enhance the coherence of response mechanisms to the difficulties faced by IDPs.