§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the budget for the United Nations Secretary General's special representative on internally displace people; what information they have about the number of internally displace people country by country, and whether they consider that the institutional mechanisms established, and resources made available, by the United Nations are commensurate with the magnitude of the problem of internally displaced people throughout the world.
§ Baroness Chalker of WallaseyThe office of the UN Secretary General's Special Representative on Internally Displaced People is funded from the biennial UN regular budget allocation for all mandates approved by the UN's Economic and Social Committee. Voluntary contributions to the Special Representative's office may also be made through the Trust Fund of the Centre for Human Rights.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates mat there are some 30 million internally displaced people worldwide. Given the fluidity of the situation UNHCR does not keep exact figures on a country by country basis. But current estimated numbers by continent are:
22WA
Number Africa 16 million Europe\FSU 6 million Asia 57 million Latin America 13 million Oceania 50,000 We support the work of the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative, the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee Task Force on Internally Displaced People and the UNHCR to rationalise and strengthen the UN's institutional mechanisms for handling the issue of internally displaced people.