The formation of the global IDP Regime is widely understood to be a reaction to the perceived upshot of instability and violence in the Post-Cold War era which saw state collapse, civil war, popular revolt, secession, ethnic cleansing, famine and genocide, force millions of people from their homes to seek refuge either across or within their national borders. The modern regime stems from the proposed reform of the United Nations issued by Kofi Annan in 1997, that sought to adequately address the needs of IDPs through the Emergency Relief Co-ordinator of UN OCHA who was tasked with developing policy and operational mechanisms so that ‘all humanitarian issues, including those which fall in gaps of existing mandates of agencies such as protection and assistance for internally displaced persons, are addressed’. 3 There are five elements to the Global Internal Displacement Regime. First the legal and advocacy dimension is comprised of the United Nations Special Representative to the Secretary General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. This post was established at the request of the Commission on Human Rights in 1992 in order to examine the human rights issues related to internally displaced persons and to prepare a relevant comprehensive study by General Assembly Resolution.
URL : http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/798/1/Laker_Rethinking_Internal_Displacement.pdf