Kälin calls for pause in Iraqi displacements

Swiss diplomat Walter Kälin, the United Nations representative on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), has appealed to Iraq to pause such evictions.

Around half a million people live in temporary accommodation in Baghdad and other cities.

“I call on the Iraqi authorities to issue a moratorium until there is a strategy for reintegrating IDPs,” he said on Thursday after an eight-day trip to Iraq, adding that no one should be forced to return to their native region.

According to the Iraqi government, since 2006 about 1.5 million people have been displaced in the country.

Kälin, a professor of law at Bern University, is also a member of the UN Human Rights Committee, and was one of the architects of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.