The Kampala Convention (formally, the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa) is a treaty of the African Union (AU) that addresses internal displacement caused by armed conflict, natural disasters and large-scale development projects in Africa.
Large populations of internally displaced persons have existed and continue to exist in Africa, and these are due to many causes, the most prominent being violence, environmental factors, development and social conflict.
Adoption of the official text and content approbation and adoption by the AU was performed in 2009. In 2012, 15 member states ratified the Convention— marking formal adoption by the AU. Since that time 30 of now-55 member states have ratified the Convention, with many others on having ratified, being on track to do so, or expressing interest in doing so.
Despite its progress, the African continent's IDP populations continue to be high— accounting for a third of the global IDP population. Critics, scholars, and international organizations point to less-than-substantial emphasis of effective implementation by ratifying states. Consideration of special populations and women has also been called for by these groups.
History The situation and presence of internally displaced persons (IDPs) is not a recent occurrence in human history, but rather due to societal factors gained a larger audience after the Cold War.Dieng, A. (2017). Protecting internally displaced persons: The value of the Kampala Convention as a regional example . International Review of the Red Cross, 99(904), 263-282. The experience and protection of internally displaced persons varies widely from those groups and individuals deemed refugees. In contrast to refugees, IDPs do not receive support from the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR), and there is no comparable agency that accommodates the needs of these individuals.Guistiniani, F. Z. (2010). New hopes and challenges for the protection of IDPs in Africa: The Kampala convention for the protection and assistance of internally displaced persons in Africa. Denv. J. Int'l L. & Pol'y, 39, 347.
Many past forced migration organization efforts in Africa and internationally substantially influenced the Kampala Convention— including the 1969 Organization of African Unity Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa and the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement developed by the United Nations. The Guiding Principles have inspired and guided similarly focused regulations crafted by entities at the regional and national levels worldwide. These remain the major framework for protection of internally displaced persons globally.
In 2011, prior to the signing of this treaty, close to 10 million people were estimated to be internally displaced persons across sub-Saharan Africa. This number represented over half of the population of internally displaced persons in the World with the largest number in 2011 residing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Maru, M. T. (2011). The Kampala Convention and its Contribution in Filling the Protection Gap in International Law . Journal of Internal Displacement, 1(1), 91-130. Chicago. Several states within the African continent, including Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Somalia, are among the five nations with the largest displacement situations globally.Kälin, W., & Schrepfer, N. (2013). Internal displacement and the Kampala Convention: an opportunity for development actors. IDMC. Specifically, the Darfur region of Sudan was of special interest in the consideration of the situation of internally displaced persons in that region of Africa.Duchatellier, M., & Phuong, C. (2014). The African contribution to the protection of internally displaced persons: A commentary on the 2009 Kampala Convention. In Research Handbook on International Law and Migration. Edward Elgar Publishing.
The primary factor that most of these displacement situations can be attributed to is violence, which can further be related to histories of colonialism, external intervention, and social and physical conflicts within states.
Development is one of the rising factors contributing to internal displacement within the African region— being attributable to more of the situations of internal displacement than war. In 2012, the number of displaced individuals was greater than the refugee global total. Additionally, internally displaced persons are very often subject to increased influence by militia or armed forces groups.Groth, L. (2011). Engendering protection: An analysis of the 2009 Kampala Convention and its provisions for internally displaced women. International Journal of Refugee Law, 23(2), 221-251.
Environmental factors, and their impact on human populations, are particularly pronounced in Africa, although it is the area of the World with the least contribution to anthropogenic climate change.dos Santos Soares, A. (2018). Protecting environmentally displaced persons under the Kampala Convention: a brief assessment. Revista Catalana de Dret Ambiental, 9(1). Natural disasters have displaced more and more numbers of individuals every year. It was estimated that approximately 1 million individuals were displaced by natural disasters and occurrences in 2009— and close to 2 million were displaced the following year. The plight of individuals displaced by natural disaster is most greatly emphasized in the Horn of Africa. Drought is of particular concern. In Somalia alone, an estimated one and a half million individuals were displaced from their homes in 2011 due to drought. In 2012, it was estimated that over eight million people were newly displaced in Africa due to natural disasters.
Close to six after the adoption of the Kampala Convention, in 2018, it was estimated that 16.7 million IDPs still existed in Africa— accounting for close to one-third of IDPs globally, a number estimated at that time to be approximately 40 million. Globally, the number of IDPs has been on the rise in recent years— doubling in the period from 2009–2018.Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, (2019). Global Report on Internal Displacement 2019. IDMC. http://www.internal-displacement.org/sites/default/files/publications/documents/2019-IDMC-GRID.pdf
Organization Organizations such as the UNHCR, the IOM, the ICRC, and others aided the African Union in formulating the early text which constituted the Convention. Further meetings in 2007 and 2008 finalized the official text, and in October 2009, the contents of the treaty were considered and adopted.Abebe, A. M. (2011, March). The Kampala Convention and environmentally induced displacement on Africa . In IOM Intersessional Workshop on Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Migration (pp. 29-30). Since then, a number of countries have ratified the Convention.
List of African Union nations that have ratified the Kampala Convention (as of 29 October 2019):
The list includes 30 of the 55 current members of the African Union.International Committee of the Red Cross (2019, December 2). The Kampala Convention: Ten Recommendations Ten Years On. ICRC. https://shop.icrc.org/the-kampala-convention-key-recommendations-ten-years-on-3188.html?_ga=2.172367275.927513334.1587356895-876322533.1587356895
Additionally, it should also be noted that since 29 October 2019, many countries— including Mozambique, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Senegal, Sudan, and Somalia— have either ratified the Convention recently, are close to ratification, or have expressed a strong interest in doing so recently.United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, (2019, November 2019). UNHCR welcomes Somalia's ratification of the Kampala Convention. UNHCR. https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/press/2019/11/5dde4fb04/unhcr-welcomes-somalias-ratification-kampala-convention.html
Treaty contents The Convention defines displaced persons as “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.African Union. (n.d.) African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa. African Union. https://au.int/sites/default/files/treaties/36846-treaty-0039_-_kampala_convention_african_union_convention_for_the_protection_and_assistance_of_internally_displaced_persons_in_africa_e.pdf
The Convention reinforces in legal sense that the primary duty of lending support and ensuring and providing protection to internally displaced persons is that of the State's.Ojeda, S. (2010). The Kampala convention on internally displaced persons: Some international humanitarian law aspects . Refugee Survey Quarterly, 29(3), 58-66. The Convention explicitly links internal displacement specially in the fields of violence, war, human rights violations, and environmental depreciation. It heavily emphasizes the right of individuals to not be what the stakeholding parties deemed arbitrarily displaced individuals and groups— following the regular pattern of international law conformation in regards to justification of displacement, but also expanding upon regular rule here to include specific barring of the use of harmful practices and development projects as an explicit cause or justification of displacement.Adeola, R. (2018). T he Kampala Convention and the right not to be arbitrarily displaced. Forced Migration Review, (59), 15-17.
The document proceeds in the following sequential order— an overview of regulations and protections related to arbitrary displacement, protections given to IDPs throughout the process of displacement, and concludes with a delineation of solutions for the greater situation as a whole.Stavropoulou, M. (2010). The Kampala Convention and protection from arbitrary displacement. Forced Migration Review, (36), 62
Key articles The treaty includes provisions, specifically Article 3, detailing and expanding the rights of internally displaced persons mainly associated with climate change and factors relating to the environment.Through documents like the Convention, states hope to be able to reduce this by supporting systems, groups, and individuals aimed at advocating and serving the interests of IDPs. Article 7 provides an overview of the non-state actors and their roles in this situation.
Article summaries Article 1: guiding definition of internally displaced person, other corresponding terms Asplet, M., & Bradley, M. (2012, December). Strengthened protection for internally displaced persons in Africa: The Kampala Convention comes into force. American Society of International Law.
Article 2: outlines goals of the Convention
Article 3: describes duties, responsibilities of the Convention
Articles 4 and 10: describes strategies for the prevention of displacement within the African continent
Articles 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9: describes facets of support and aid related to displacement
Article 10: discusses displacement related to or stemming from development
Article 11: outlines a resolution for displacement
Article 12: discusses ways to combat the effects of displacement for affected individuals and groups
Article 13: relates documentation facet of issue
Articles 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23: outlines policy mechanisms and operations related internally displaced persons
Impact