Janmyr Maja. Protecting Civilians in Refugee Camps: Unable and Unwilling States, UNHCR and International Responsibility

Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2014. — 400 p.Millions of refugees and internally displaced persons live in refugee camps set up and run by a government, an international organization and/or a nongovernmental organization (ngo), within or near their country of origin. Failure to provide adequate physical security to refugees and internally
displaced persons in those camps is a pressing problem the world over. Basic standards of protection exist in international refugee law, international human rights law and international humanitarian law but, ultimately, who is (or should be held) responsible for failing to comply with these standards in the context of refugee camps? The general rule is that the host state has primary responsibility for the safety of refugee camps. However, it is also accepted that the host state may be unwilling and/or unable to provide effective protection with regard to basic human rights. Do the international rules on responsibility allow for the possibility of holding more than one actor responsible under international law? Do these rules treat differently situations where the host state is unable to secure effective protection, as opposed to unwilling? Maja Janmyr argues persuasively for the possibility to hold actors other than the host state responsible for human rights violations in refugee camps, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (unhcr) and its ngo implementing partners. Her arguments are based on the International Law Commission’s Articles on State Responsibility as well as its recent work on the Responsibility of International Organizations; these, she argues, open up for the possibility of shared responsibility among several actors.