A conglomerate of human right organisations on Wednesday launched a campaign to press the governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan for introducing legislation about internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Speaking at a joint press conference at Press Club, Uzma Tahir, policy coordinator of ActionAid Pakistan, Muhammad Idrees Kamal of Citizen Rights and Sustainable Development (CRSD), Qamar Naseem of the Blue Vein and others stressed the need for taking legal measures for the welfare of millions of displaced persons across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
‘The legal draft on IDPs is based on internationally recognised principles such us the UN guidelines of 1998 and international law to determine the legal standing of the IDPs. This includes establishing a legal framework, ensuring the legal protection and providing a legal basis,” said Uzma Tahir. She said the draft law asked for providing special protection to women, children, vulnerable and displaced person with disabilities. It also demands for ensuring safe location of IDPs in satisfactory conditions of hygiene, water, food, shelter and away from areas of armed conflict and danger, she added.
The draft law, she said, ensured freedom of movement, choice of residence; facilitating family reunification and necessary protection for families of mixed ethnic identity. The civil society activist said campaigns were divided into two phases, in the first phase, the draft document will be circulated among bar associations, academia and the civil society while in the second phase parliamentarians from Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be approached to get the draft law passed from the provincial assemblies.
Idrees Kamal said over the last decade Pakistan had experienced a large-scale involuntary displacement caused by a range of factors including military operation against militants in Malakand division and tribal areas as well against insurgents and dissidents in Balochistan. He said the mass exodus from these areas was also attributed to generalised violence and violation of human rights. The draft document underlines the key challenges and various areas of concern that need to be addressed through domestic laws and policies, he said.
“It binds the state of Pakistan to prevent arbitrary displacement and to eliminate the root causes of the displacement. Further it requires of the state and the government to ensure the physical and material safety of the IDPs and that it should maintain a national database for the registration of the IDPs,” he remarked.
Qamer Naseem said the draft document adhered to the principles of international humanitarian law and human rights applicable to the protection of IDPs. Faisal Khan and Saira Bano of Shirkat Gah, Zar Ali Khan of Tribal NGOs Consortium, Nazira Sayed of Khawendo Kor, Nizam Dawar of Tribal Development Network, Benish Irfan of Women Concern, Maqsood Sulfi of Peace Foundation, Shagufta Malik of WORD, Shakeela Khan of the Grassroots in Action were also present.
