CEU eTD Collection (2019); Dudinska, Ganna: Internal Displacement as a Global Human Rights Challenge: Looking for a Solution through the Practices of Ukraine, Colombia and the African Union

CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
Author Dudinska, Ganna
Title Internal Displacement as a Global Human Rights Challenge: Looking for a Solution through the Practices of Ukraine, Colombia and the African Union
Summary This thesis is dedicated to the phenomenon of internal displacement as a global human rights challenge. It addresses the issues arising in the legal protection of IDPs from international, regional and national perspectives and questions what a solution can be. Firstly, it evaluates whether the existing international humanitarian and human rights law provide sufficient protection to IDPs during all stages of displacement. It concludes that even though the relationship of these two bodies of law is complementary, there are gaps in the legal protection of IDPs to be fulfilled. At the same time, the thesis highlights the absence of international binding instrument and demonstrates why the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement currently represent the most comprehensive framework. Secondly, this thesis examines the practices of national legislators and their success in bringing legislation in line with international standards. By analyzing and comparing the national legal frameworks of Colombia and Ukraine, it recognizes that domestic legislators fail to address the specific protection needs of IDPs. Thus, even though the Guiding Principles is a very important standard-setting document, being a soft law, it does not impose any obligations on states, while national legislators are reluctant to incorporate them. Moreover, the thesis questions how the African Union Kampala Convention for the Protection and Assistance of IDPs in Africa, as the first regional binding treaty on internal displacement, has advanced the legal protection of IDPs. The research discovers that its framework more encompassing and sensitive to the specific human rights concerns in the context of displacement if compared to the national legislation of Ukraine and Colombia. Thus, the thesis draws three major lessons from the practices of Ukraine, Colombia and the African Union. By relying on these lessons and considering both arguments for and against, it claims that a treaty on internal displacement is a possible solution to the challenge of internal displacement.
Supervisor Cazenave, Pierre
Department Legal Studies LLM
Full texthttps://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/dudinska_ganna.pdf

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