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process, the Commission convened listening sessions with internally displaced
persons to develop recommendations to address historical injustices. In addition,
groups of internally displaced persons, supported by the national human rights
institution of the Philippines, organized their own community-based initiatives to
support peacebuilding efforts. 25
27. Several peace agreements have incorporated provisions to facilitate the
participation of internally displaced persons in elections as voters and candidates. The
Agreements on a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict,
signed in 1991, included specific measures to ensure that internally displaced persons
could return to areas of origin and would have the same rights, freedoms and
opportunities to take part in the post-conflict electoral process (annex 3, art. 3, and
annex 4, art. 6). Through the National Pact concluded between the Government of
Mali and the Unified Movements and Fronts of Azawad Giving Expression to the
Special Status of Northern Mali, a peace agreement signed in 1992 between the
Government of Mali and non-State armed groups, four special seats for internally
displaced persons from the north of Mali were created to ensure their representation
in the National Assembly and their participation in post-conflict governance (arts. 54
and 55). The Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and
Lasting Peace, signed in Colombia in 2016, includes electoral management
arrangements to ensure the participation of the most vulnerable and isolated
populations, including internally displaced persons, by promoting a d iagnostic
exercise to identify and address the obstacles faced by those communities in exercising
the right to vote and by promoting the political representation of internally displaced
persons through special transitory peace electoral districts where int ernally displaced
persons in the process of return have priority as candidates (arts. 2.3.2 and 2.3.6).
B.
Fostering durable solutions in peace agreements
28. Peace agreements present a crucial opportunity to lay the groundwork for and
enable durable solutions to internal displacement. Effective peace agreements bring
about an end to hostilities, resulting in lower levels of violence and conflict, the latter
being key to enabling internally displaced persons to exercise their right to a free
choice of residence without feeling coerced by security concerns.
29. Durable solutions frameworks within peace agreements should ensure that the
conceptualization of security goes beyond short-term humanitarian approaches to
protection risks and extends to the establishment of a broader framework capable of
protecting the full spectrum of human rights in peacetime. That requires the
establishment or relegitimization of robust State and local institutions, strengthened
laws and policies related to the protection of human rights and independent national
human rights mechanisms. It is also important for peace agreements to account for
the differentiated impacts of the conflict on victims in intersecting situations of
vulnerability, including their specific safety concerns. Where groundwork for durable
solutions is laid out explicitly in peace agreements, it is crucial that an appropriate
sequencing and timeframe be considered, that allowance is made for the participation
of internally displaced persons and that internally displaced persons are not
encouraged to pursue settlement options before they can safely do so. In some cases,
that has led to returns prior to the establishment of appropriate security arrangements,
such as the removal of landmines and other explosive ordnance or the
re-establishment of legitimate public security institutions, with deadly consequences.
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24-15773
Submission by the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (2023) , available at
www.ohchr.org/en/calls-for-input/2023/call-input-thematic-priorities-special-rapporteur-humanrights-internally.
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