Motion for a resolution | Doc. 14548 | 26 April 2018

The protection of victims of forced displacement under international law

Signatories: Mr Fabien GOUTTEFARDE, France, NR ; Ms Thorhildur Sunna ÆVARSDÓTTIR, Iceland, SOC ; Mr Yasin AKTAY, Turkey, FDG ; Lord Donald ANDERSON, United Kingdom, SOC ; Ms Petra BAYR, Austria, SOC ; Mr Jokin BILDARRATZ, Spain, ALDE ; Ms Rósa Björk BRYNJÓLFSDÓTTIR, Iceland, UEL ; Ms Klotilda BUSHKA, Albania, SOC ; Ms Anastasia CHRISTODOULOPOULOU, Greece, UEL ; Mr Vernon COAKER, United Kingdom, SOC ; Ms Yolaine de COURSON, France, NR ; Mr René DANESI, France, EPP/CD ; Ms Jennifer DE TEMMERMAN, France, NR ; Mr Manlio DI STEFANO, Italy, NR ; Mr Bernard FOURNIER, France, EPP/CD ; Mr Marco GATTI, San Marino, EPP/CD ; Mr André GATTOLIN, France, NR ; Mr Paul GAVAN, Ireland, UEL ; Mr Simonas GENTVILAS, Lithuania, ALDE ; Mr Domagoj HAJDUKOVIĆ, Croatia, SOC ; Ms Eva-Lena JANSSON, Sweden, SOC ; Mr Jiři KOBZA, Czech Republic, NR ; Ms Kerstin LUNDGREN, Sweden, ALDE ; Ms Liliane MAURY PASQUIER, Switzerland, SOC ; Mr Arkadiusz MULARCZYK, Poland, EC ; Mr Killion MUNYAMA, Poland, EPP/CD ; Mr Paulo PISCO, Portugal, SOC ; Ms Patrícia RIBERAYGUA, Andorra, ALDE ; Lord Simon RUSSELL, United Kingdom, EC ; Mr Michael SVENSSON, Sweden, EPP/CD ; Ms Nicole TRISSE, France, NR ; Mr André VALLINI, France, SOC ; Ms Marie-Christine VERDIER-JOUCLAS, France, NR ; Mr Nikolaj VILLUMSEN, Denmark, UEL

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

The award of the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize in 2016 to Nadia Murad sheds light on the sexual enslavement and human trafficking of women and children of the Yezidi community by the terrorist organisation Daesh and their forced displacement. Several hundred thousand members of the Yezidi community were thus displaced, many of whom found asylum in Europe.

Brutal attacks by Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region since 2013 have led to the forced displacement of more than one million people in Nigeria as well as Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The Humanitarian Conference on Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region in Oslo on 24 February 2017 reminded the world of this vast humanitarian tragedy. Many of those people have become refugees in Europe.

More than one million people in Ukraine have been displaced since 2014 by the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. Several applications by victims are pending before the European Court of Human Rights. In September 2017, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that there was an urgent need for accountability for human rights violations and for providing the victims with redress.

Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the widespread or systematic deportation of civilian population as well as rape, sexual slavery or any other grave sexual violence are crimes against humanity. War crimes are, for example, intentionally directed attacks against the civilian population as well as its deportation or transfer.

The Parliamentary Assembly should therefore discuss how member States and the Council of Europe can better protect victims of forced displacement and provide them with legal redress.