CIAO DATE: 12/04

Internally Displaced Persons' Voting Rights in the OSCE Region

Erin Mooney and Balkees Jarrah

November 2004

Brookings Institution

 

Introduction

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has recognized that the voting rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs) should be a matter of "special scrutiny." To assist the OSCE, a new report by the Brookings Institution-Johns Hopkins SAIS Project on Internal Displacement examines the extent to which IDPs in the OSCE region, who currently number some 3 million, are able to exercise their right to vote.

Entitled The Voting Rights of Internally Displaced Persons: The OSCE Region, the study assesses the voting rights of IDPs in all thirteen countries in the OSCE where there are internally displaced populations. While noting that progress has been made in helping IDPs exercise their right to vote, the study also finds that many IDPs continue to face obstacles in exercising this right, sharply reducing their influence over the political, economic and social decisions affecting their lives. To address these concerns, the study puts forth a number of recommendations for particular countries as well as for the OSCE.

Written by Erin Mooney and Balkees Jarrah, the report will be presented at the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Internally Displaced Persons in Vienna on 4-5 November 2004 so as to assist the OSCE, its participating states and civil society partners to devote greater attention to the voting rights of the internally displaced. The conclusions and recommendations of the report follow.

Full Text (PDF, 100 pages, 1.39 MB)