Enhancing cooperation for R2P in situations of internal displacement in Africa

This short blog by a Barbudan community advocate examines how the Government of Antigua and Barbuda cynically forced the evacuation of Barbuda during Hurricane Irma in 2017 to make way for a luxury real estate development project catering to the exclusive private lifestyles of millionaires. Declaring the island ‘uninhabitable’, the government used threats and dubious legal procedures to confiscate all Barbudan land and prevent Barbudans from asserting their right to live on their land and island. Eight years on, Barbudans, led by community representatives and activists, continue their struggle. As the author notes, their challenges have strengthened the resolve of the people of Barbuda and helped forge alliances with other communities facing similar injustices.

This policy brief examines the forced and mostly failed relocation of members of coastal Sri Lankan communities following the 2004 tsunami that devastated parts of the country. In the aftermath of the tsunami, the Sri Lankan government decided to enforce a coastal buffer zone law that banned housing within proximity to the coastline, requiring residents in the buffer zone to vacate and move to poorly planned and constructed housing in ill-conceived relocation sites. As government and civil society organisations involved in the relocation gradually disengaged from the project, community members were left to fend for themselves amidst growing economic and social challenges associated with the relocation. As such, many families eventually returned to the buffer zone, exposing themselves to both legal and coastal hazard risks. This blog highlights how failure to involve communities in the planning and development of the relocation project has led to a second disaster for tsunami-affected communities – that of a poorly implemented planned relocation.