News Alert Kenya: New bill set to provide legal protection to thousands of IDPs

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On June 13th, the Honorable Ekwe Ethuro, MP, presented the Internally Displaced Persons Bill 2012, to parliament.  Once implemented, it will ensure legal protection for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who have been displaced in Kenya due to violence, disaster or development projects. "In the past, operations to help people who have been displaced have been done without any legal direction," said Ehuro during an interview with IRIN news. "This law will ensure that any person dealing with an internally displaced person must do so within the confines of the law." The full implementation of the Bill will require the adoption of   a national policy on IDPs which has been under consideration by the Kenyan government since 2010.  Once these two instruments are in place, Kenya will be in a position to join the Kampala Convention, the first regional legally binding legal instrument on IDP protection. About IDMCThe Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) (www.internal-displacement.org) was established by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in 1998, upon the request of the United Nations Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC). Monitoring internal displacement caused by conflict, violence, human rights violations and natural disasters in over 50 countries, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) is widely respected as the leading source of information and analysis on internal displacement throughout the world.