HRCP report demands long-term strategy on IDPs

Lahore, November 5:Pakistan needs to shun the practice of dealing with internal displacement crises in a piecemeal and largely reactive manner and must urgently devise a long-term strategy for protection and assistance of internally displaced persons (IDPs), the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said.

Launching a report entitled ‘Internal Displacement in Pakistan: Contemporary Challenges’, HRCP said that all indicators suggested that internal displacement will remain a key issue of concern in Pakistan at least in the medium term, yet a framework for assistance to and protection of the displaced as well as for safeguarding their rights was still not in sight.

The Commission said that Pakistan urgently needed to learn lessons from the recent displacement crises in the country and ensure that they inform responses in similar crises in the future, not only with respect to protection and humanitarian assistance during displacement, but also to advocate a comprehensive approach to preventing and avoiding conditions that might lead to involuntary displacement in the first place.

The report can be accessed at:
http://www.hrcp-web.org/pdf/Internal%20Displacement%20in%20Pakistan.pdf

Dr Mehdi Hasan

Chairperson

Category: English