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International Journal of Refugee Law Advance Access originally published online on January 7, 2009
International Journal of Refugee Law 2009 21(1):34-47; doi:10.1093/ijrl/een038
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© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

From Theory to Practice: National and Regional Application of the Guiding Principles

Susan Carr*

The 1951 Refugee Convention affords protection for those who cross a border, but there is no specific legally binding instrument for internally displaced persons (IDPs). As of December 2007, there were an estimated 26 million IDPs in the world. The 1998 Guiding Principles are, in and of themselves, soft law, and they emphasise that the primary responsibility and duty to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to IDPs lies with the state in whose jurisdiction they are found. The Guiding Principles are an excellent tool for the development of national policies and laws on internal displacement. Nevertheless, without effective implementation and an independent judiciary, as well as dissemination and awareness, these national laws remain pieces of paper that only give the impression that measures have been taken. If individuals are not provided with effective mechanisms to access their rights, and if governments do not develop systems to review their effectiveness, then we are little better off than before the national policies were developed. This article will consider the cases of Colombia, Turkey and Angola to determine the scope of the laws, their concurrence with international principles, as well as their practical effectiveness for those displaced.

* BSC Econ, Aberystwyth University; LLM, University of Essex, specialising in Refugee and internal displacement law. Previously worked for the ICRC and Advocacy Forum Nepal, currently working for Home for Human Rights, Sri Lanka.


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