United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-08-17 monographic deposited born digital 68 p. GA 1.13:GAO-01-803 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-803 P0b002ee18039bfd0 f:d01803 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-803 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-803 GAO-01-803 Civil rights Federal aid to foreign countries Foreign governments Foreign policies International cooperation International organizations Refugees Reporting requirements Burundi Colombia Sudan UN World Food Program Other Written Product A01604

Internally displaced persons--those forced to flee their homes because of armed conflict and persecution but who remain within their own country--are among the most at-risk, vulnerable populations in the world. Although some protection has been provided to internally displaced persons, international organizations have been unable to meet the protection needs of internally displaced persons in most locations, partly because of the danger in operating in conflict zones, the presence of personal security risks to aid workers, and the decline in budgetary resources, but also because international organizations have not taken a proactive approach toward protection. Also, international relief workers have not received training on how to incorporate protection considerations and interventions into their assistance activities, and in the three countries GAO visited, international organizations do not coordinate their protection actions within the countries in which they operate. Without such coordination, international organizations are unable to share basic information about the location of their protection officers and effective approaches to protection interventions. The U.N. Security Council is one forum where these matters can be addressed in the context of underlying political and security factors. The U.S. government has no overall policy or lead office to coordinate its efforts for dealing with internally displaced persons. Instead, government activities aimed at this effort are dispersed among different agencies and offices. Some Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development officials believe that providing assistance to the internally displaced in this way is labor and time intensive, lacks a locus of accountability, and leads to duplication of activities. Although State is required to provide Congress with an annual report on human rights violations, these reports include only limited information about the treatment of internally displaced persons. Moreover, the country reports do not have a standardized format for providing information about the internally displaced and their human right condition that would allow concerned parties to access the information readily. Increased and more systematic reporting that provided some focus on internally displaced persons would identify a significant problem and would provide U.S. government and international and nongovernmental organizations' officials with country-level data to craft a cohesive program and policy response. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-803/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-803.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-803/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-803.pdf GAO-01-803 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-803 Other Written Product GAO-01-803; Foreign Affairs: Internally Displaced Persons Lack Effective Protection; Civil rights Federal aid to foreign countries Foreign governments Foreign policies International cooperation International organizations Refugees Reporting requirements Burundi Colombia Sudan UN World Food Program Title 22 Section 2151et seq Title 22 Section 2601et seq 22 U.S.C. 2151et seq 22 U.S.C. 2601et seq