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Resolution 2214 (2018)
Humanitarian needs and rights of internally displaced persons in Europe
1. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary
of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement,
the Parliamentary Assembly is alarmed by the fact that, within Europe,
more than 4 million people are displaced inside their own country
due to armed conflicts and violence. As a result of the massive population
displacement caused by the war in eastern Ukraine and the annexation
of the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, the
suffering of some 1.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs)
has been added to the long-standing suffering of the IDPs affected
by earlier conflicts in Europe, in particular in Azerbaijan, Cyprus
and Georgia.
2. The Assembly underlines that, under the Statute of the International
Criminal Court, it constitutes a war crime for an occupying power
to transfer, directly or indirectly, parts of its own civilian population
into the territory it occupies, or to deport or transfer all or
parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside
this territory. Any relocation of persons must be carried out in
a manner that does not violate the rights to life, dignity, liberty
and security of those affected. Regardless of ethnicity, IDPs and
their families must be able to fully enjoy their human rights, including
fundamental social, cultural and economic rights as enshrined in
international law. The fact that IDPs have the right to voluntarily
resettle in another part of their country does not affect their
rights as IDPs.
3. Welcoming the enormous efforts in favour of IDPs undertaken
by the member States affected by armed conflicts or other causes
of forced displacement, the Assembly invites those States to regularly
assess and make public the humanitarian needs of their IDPs, possibly
together with the United Nations, the European Union and the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in particular regarding the needs
of IDPs in terms of housing, education, health care, employment
and financial assistance. Member States must respect the rights
enshrined in the revised European Social Charter (ETS No. 163),
which, in accordance with the jurisprudence of the European Court
of Human Rights on extra-territorial obligations, also binds member
States that exercise control outside their own territory.
4. The Assembly deplores the fact that the humanitarian situation
of most IDPs in Europe has been negatively affected for an excessively
long time because the underlying conflicts are protracted and forced displacements,
which were often perpetrated on ethnic grounds, have been thus maintained
by the de facto authorities
controlling the territories of the former homes and places of habitual
residence of IDPs. It is therefore important that the human rights
and humanitarian needs of IDPs are at the centre of all international
efforts to monitor and mediate those conflicts.
5. Referring to United Nations Security Council Resolutions 193
(1964) and 360 (1974) and its Resolution 1628
(2008) on the situation in Cyprus, the Assembly welcomes
the important progress made in the humanitarian situation of IDPs
in Cyprus over the past decades and invites the authorities of Cyprus
and Turkey to:
5.1. continue supporting
the work of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus, which supplies essential
humanitarian services to IDPs, and to provide all possible information
on the fate of people who either disappeared in Cyprus or were transferred
to Turkey as prisoners of war;
5.2. encourage the parties to the Cyprus problem to return
to the negotiating table with the aim of reaching a final settlement
to this protracted problem that would include all property issues
and remedies for the benefit of all Cypriots;
5.3. continue the demining work of the United Nations Peacekeeping
Force in Cyprus, in accordance with United Nations Security Council
Resolution 2398 (2018), and provide access to the remaining minefields
in the buffer zone, hence ensuring that IDPs and others are not
exposed to life-threatening risks;
5.4. open more crossing points for Cypriots at the buffer zone,
promote inter-community contacts and projects on both sides of the
buffer zone, such as the good example of the restoration of the
Monastery of Apostolos Andreas from 2013 to 2016, and ensure that
all the religious and cultural rights of IDPs are fully respected
and protected, bearing in mind that these confidence-building measures
are conducive to creating a climate of good will but cannot contribute
substantially to addressing the problems of IDPs in Cyprus.
6. Referring to United Nations Security Council Resolutions 822
(1993), 853 (1993), 874 (1993) and 884 (1993), as well as its Resolution 1416 (2005),
the Assembly deplores the fact that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
has remained protracted since 1994, commends the immense humanitarian
efforts in favour of IDPs in Azerbaijan and invites the authorities
of Armenia and Azerbaijan to:
6.1. give
priority to the humanitarian needs and rights of IDPs in their actions
and bilateral negotiations facilitated by the Minsk Group of the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and fully
implement without further delay the relevant decisions of the European
Court of Human Rights;
6.2. enable the ICRC to enter the area of Nagorno-Karabakh
and its surrounding districts to pursue forensic work on cases of
missing persons, in particular in mass graves at Heyvali (Drmbon),
Khojaly (Ivanyan), Qazançı (Kazanchi) and Karakend (Berdashen),
and analyse and publish the data found, in close co-operation with
the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society and the Armenian Red Cross Society;
6.3. establish, in accordance with the relevant judgments of
the European Court of Human Rights, national commissions for the
compensation for or return of IDPs’ possessions and property which
have been destroyed or the enjoyment of which has been rendered
impossible by the forced displacement, and accept and process individual
or collective claims;
6.4. mandate the OSCE to conduct a detailed assessment mission
following up on the 2010 assessment mission, including a humanitarian
component, to the territories affected by the conflict, and to continue
and support demining projects in the conflict area;
6.5. restore interpersonal contacts between Armenians and Azerbaijanis,
as recommended by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on 7 December 2017,
including between Armenians originating from the area of Nagorno-Karabakh
and its surrounding districts and IDPs in Azerbaijan;
6.6. extend restoration projects to other sites of cultural
importance to IDPs, welcoming reports about the restoration of the
Yukhari Govhar Agha Mosque in Shusha.
7. Referring to United Nations Security Council Resolutions 849
(1993) and 1808 (2008), the Final Declarations of the OSCE Heads
of States Summits in 1994, 1996 and 1999, as well as to Parliamentary Assembly Resolutions 1633 (2008), 1647 (2009), 1664 (2009), 1683 (2009) and 1916 (2013), the
Assembly deplores the forcible expulsion of people from Abkhazia,
Georgia, and the Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) in Georgia in
the 1990s and again in 2008. It regrets the fact that this conflict
in Georgia remains unresolved, and commends the immense efforts
provided in favour of IDPs in Georgia. In this regard, the Assembly:
7.1. underlines the importance of
the Co-ordination Mechanism on Missing Persons, created in 2010 with
the help of the ICRC, and encourages the participants to engage
in it constructively;
7.2. calls on the Russian Federation as the de facto authority exercising effective
control over Abkhazia, Georgia, and the Tskhinvali region (South
Ossetia) in Georgia to:
7.2.1. recognise formally and effectively
the right of safe and dignified return of all IDPs, including those
from the 2008 war, to their original places of residence in Abkhazia,
Georgia, and the Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) in Georgia, in
line with paragraphs 9.9 and 9.11 of Resolution 1647 (2009);
7.2.2. welcoming the demining of Abkhazia, Georgia, by the HALO
Trust from 1997 to 2011 and taking note of the demining operations
in the Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) in Georgia in 2016 by the
Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation as the de facto authority exercising effective
control, ensure also the withdrawal from the conflict areas of ammunition
and weapons which pose a serious risk to IDPs and others and have
the potential to cause further displacements;
7.2.3. open more so-called crossing points and cease the practice
of installing barbed-wire fences and other artificial barriers that
are guarded by the Russian military along the occupation line, so
as not to hinder freedom of movement;
7.2.4. support the use of the Georgian language and alphabet
in schools in the conflict area, in order to avoid any further ethnic
discrimination and displacement;
7.2.5. fully implement the European Union-mediated ceasefire
agreement, and in particular to grant the European Union Monitoring
Mission (EUMM) full access to the entire internationally recognised
territory of Georgia and work towards a new internationalised peacekeeping
format;
7.2.6. initiate credible investigations into acts of ethnic cleansing
of Georgians from these regions and implement measures to reverse
it, including taking measures to effectively protect the property
left behind by IDPs from both recent and previous conflicts with
a view to securing restitution of this property.
8. Recalling its Resolution
2198 (2018) on the humanitarian consequences of the Russian
war against Ukraine, the Assembly further invites the authorities
of the Russian Federation and Ukraine to:
8.1. support the Restoring Family Links projects by the Ukrainian
Red Cross Society and the Russian Red Cross Society and to enable
the ICRC to enter, with due protection and safety, the areas affected by
the conflict in order to pursue forensic work on cases of missing
persons;
8.2. establish a commission for the compensation or return
of IDPs’ possessions and property, in accordance with the jurisprudence
of the European Court of Human Rights under Article 1 of the Protocol to
the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 9);
8.3. support and assist demining operations in all areas affected
by the conflict, such as the action of the Danish Demining Group
of the Danish Refugee Council, the Government of Japan and the United Nations
Office for Project Services, the Science for Peace and Security
project on Humanitarian Demining in Ukraine of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO), the Geneva International Centre for
Humanitarian Demining, as well as the HALO Trust;
8.4. abstain from any action that will prolong or cause further
internal displacement of persons and aggravate the humanitarian
situation of IDPs, in violation of international humanitarian law.
9. Deploring the fact that the “Southern Military District” of
the armed forces of the Russian Federation extends beyond its borders,
the Assembly calls on the Russian Government to respect the rights
of IDPs, in particular by:
9.1. refraining
from supplying weapons, ammunition and military personnel, which
leads to continued violations of international humanitarian law
and human rights of IDPs in the respective conflict areas;
9.2. allowing international humanitarian observer missions
to enter the respective conflict areas in order to analyse the humanitarian
needs of IDPs and provide humanitarian assistance.
10. Referring to the report on the human rights situation in south-east
Turkey prepared by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights in February 2017, the Assembly invites the Turkish authorities
to organise an international humanitarian assessment mission to
the areas affected by anti-terrorist operations in Turkey.
11. Recalling the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
on the human rights of IDPs, the Assembly calls on all member States
to ensure that those judgments are executed fully and without delay
and to act appropriately in cases where a respondent State refuses
to execute a judgment and pay financial compensation to IDPs or
their surviving family members.
12. Recalling its Resolution
1613 (2008) on the use of experience of the “truth commissions”,
the Assembly recommends that member States establish national, bilateral
or international commissions which record and make public the stories
and suffering of IDPs, analyse inter-ethnic life before internal
displacement and promote future inter-ethnic co-operation projects,
in order to achieve sustainable reconciliation.
13. The Assembly invites the Commissioner for Human Rights of
the Council of Europe to co-operate with member States and the Committee
of Ministers in their work for IDPs and to follow up on the 2012
Human Rights Comment “Internally displaced persons in Europe: another
lost generation?”