Newsletter - January 2010

Displaced Persons

On 11 January 2010 the Department of International Law met with the Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, Dr. Walter Kälin. In addition to being a world renowned academic authority in the field of international law, Dr. Kälin played a leading role in drawing up the Guiding Principles for Internally Displaced Persons, the principal international instrument for the protection of and assistance to internally displaced people. Dr. Kälin was accompanied by Mr. Andrew Solomon, Director of the Berns-Brookings Project on Internal Displacement, which provides support to the Representative of the Secretary General to optimize the performance of his functions.

The purpose of the meeting was to become familiar with the work of the Representative of the U.N. Secretary General with regard to internally displaced people, both at the global and regional levels, and also to report on the OAS’ work in that field.

Attending the meeting were the lawyers from the Department of International Law as well as representatives of other areas of the Secretariat for Legal Affairs and the General Secretariat. The meeting was held at the offices of the Department of International Law.

Numerous proposals for collaboration resulted from the visit, both with the office of the Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced People, and with the Brookings Institution. These include participation of representatives of these institutions in Department of International Law activities to disseminate and promote international law, the possibility of introducing into the Inter-American System a process to analyze the recent international convention on internally displaced persons adopted by the African Union, and the possibility of preparing model laws for implementing the Guiding Principles at the internal level, among others.

The Organization of American States has been concerned for decades with the issue of internally displaced persons. Every year it adopts a resolution expressing its concern for the well-being of displaced persons, urging the States and the international community to continue to make efforts to provide protection and assistance to internally displaced people.

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