Title:
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The legal framework for the return of internally displaced persons during situations of armed conflict : A colombian case study
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Existing international law practice and scholarship on the return of internally displaced persons
(lOPs) is predicated upon a 'Balkan paradigm' in which lOP returns occur within a post-conflict
setting defined by effective State enforcement of the rule of law. Nowhere is the influence of this
paradigm more evident than in the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Internal
Displacement provision that deals with return. Yet, even as this UN framework becomes
increasingly important in making and interpreting international law for the return of lOPs, the
underlying paradigm remains rooted in the particular features of the post-conflict Balkans.
To create an effective counterpoint to this partiality, the thesis draws upon the data from my
year's field research in Colombia in 2007 to analyse lOP returns in this context of protracted
armed conflict and attenuated State control. It finds that the Guiding Principles returns
framework is interpreted by Colombian law to emphasise the exclusive agency of the State
military as the guarantor of returns. However, distinct from any legal standards, the other parties
to the conflict each apply their own normative frameworks for the return of lOPs. In practice,
these overlapping and competing frameworks provide an important alternative basis for returns
by lOPs.
This study concludes that, in their current form, the Guiding Principles have limited utility as a
framework for lOP returns during extended armed conflicts such as Colombia, suggesting that a
redrafting is required. Moreover, by shifting attention towards the normative frameworks that
structure lOP returns in practice, this work provides a platform for constructive humanitarian
engagement by the international community in lOP returns during such conflicts. In these ways,
this thesis illustrates not only the limits of the Balkan paradigm but also possibilities for moving
beyond them to construct a more coherent framework for the protection of returning IDPs.
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