Softly, softly : developing a normative framework for internally displaced persons and its implications for the human rights law-making process

Abstract

The treaty is dead! Long live the legally non-binding agreement!’ A rather extreme and not entirely accurate assessment of the current state of human rights law-making but indicative all the same of an emerging trend in human rights law-making; a trend characterised by a move away from traditional state-centred law-making processes such as treaty-making to less state-centric, more inclusive, innovative and nuanced processes. A trend which this thesis seeks to examine by reference to the efforts in recent years to develop a normative framework for the protection and assistance of internally displaced persons - a conventional human rights issue, addressed in a rather unconventional manner.