WORLD BRIDGE BLOG

Torrential rains leading to floods in Pakistan have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. This new emergency has just occurred a week after the United States Congress passed the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010, which, amongst other initiatives, gives funding to refugees and displaced people in Pakistan and elsewhere. This money will make a real difference to victims in humanitarian crises. As RI’s advocate on Pakistan, I was also pleased to see clear and resolute language on the humanitarian and human rights situation there.

While the country is constantly in the news because of the United States’ security concerns, we too often forget that the Pakistani military operations conducted against the Taliban along the border with Afghanistan, have had a tremendous impact on the civilian population. Pakistan has the highest number of internally displaced persons in the world last year, and today more than 1.2 million still cannot return home.

For the past few months, civil society organizations, including Refugees International, have lamented the lack of access for humanitarian aid agencies to certain areas with large displaced communities and spoken out against the perceived impunity of the Pakistani army. As the main foreign funder of the Pakistani military, the United States bears a direct responsibility in how the war is conducted (in the latest bill around $50 million was appropriated for direct military financing, in addition to the more than $12 billion given over the past decade).

The supplemental funding goes a long way towards addressing those concerns, including providing $5 million for human rights programs, such as the training of military officials and support for human rights organizations. Moreover, the bill requires Secretary Hillary Clinton to submit a human rights strategy to Congress.

Equally important, the bill makes clear that the funding will be made available “in a manner that promotes unimpeded access by humanitarian organizations to detainees, internally displaced persons, and other Pakistani civilians adversely affected by the conflict.” This is the clearest sign yet that the United States wants to promote the ability of aid agencies to reach out to victims of the conflict. Just earlier this month the UN Humanitarian Coordination Agency noted that the humanitarian community lacked access to certain areas. This prevents displaced families from receiving basic assistance, but even more problematically, it delays assessments that would determine whether they can return home safely.

While the benefits of the Congressional bill may not yield immediately tangible results, in the medium-term it’s a necessary check on human rights abuses that are committed in the midst of the conflict, and it gives a clear signal to the Pakistani government that the United States is committed to a more transparent process.