Lawmakers at the Revitalized Transitional National Legislative Assembly (R-TNLA) have concluded a two-day roundtable discussion on the ratification of the Kampala Convention and the enactment of the Internally Displaced Persons Bill.
The Kampala Convention (African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa) came into force in 2012 in response to the challenge of preventing and addressing internal displacement in Africa.
The discussion organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in collaboration with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management also sensitized the legislators to champion the rights of displaced persons and stateless populations.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in collaboration with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management sensitized the MPs at the R-TNLA to champion the rights of displaced persons and Stateless populations.
Hon. John Dabi, the Deputy Commissioner for Refugee Affairs in South Sudan spoke shortly after the closing of the workshop said the discussions were to engage parliamentarians on South Sudan’s Solutions Strategy for displaced persons, understand the importance and relevance of the risk of statelessness in South Sudan, and explore how MPs can enhance the protection of refugees, IDPs, and persons at risk of statelessness.
“This workshop is very good because then, it will allow the parliamentarian to address through the legal frameworks that have been developed and passed, and then people can use that as the guidance to address the issues because without those guidelines you have nothing to use as a framework for supporting the IDPs,” Dabi stated.
He noted that the IDP Bill which is still under development needs to be passed so that the cabinet through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and other partners can implement it.
Dr. James Mabor Gatkuoth the Chairperson of the Committee of Legislation and Justice at the R-TNLA said: “We were asked to come and discuss the domestication of the Kampala Convention which only needs a small process of ratification. The IDPs bill is also important at this stage because as we are in the stage of the peace process it means the come home is very near so we must see that it is enacted as a law and they get the services out of it, it’s budgeted for, so we came to reflect on that which we have done.”
Mabor says they have proposed some amendments to the bill and hope that it will be passed into law once it reaches parliament.
“Let the law be there so that it will be budgeted for in the interest of the IDPs. The IDPs are of concern to us internally, the refugees; there are refugees from other parts to South Sudan and there are refugees from South Sudan in other countries they also face a similar issue,” he said.
According to the UNHCR, there are an estimated 1.6 million IDPs in South Sudan, and about 2.2 million South Sudanese refugees in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan.
South Sudan also hosts 335,000 refugees located in over 21 different locations across the country.