On 23 October 2019, the UN Secretary General announced the establishment of a High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement tasked with finding solutions to the global internal displacement crisis. The announcement came on the 10th anniversary of the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, more commonly known as the Kampala Convention.
The Secretary‑General has tasked the Panel with finding concrete long‑term solutions to and raising global awareness of internal displacement for Member States and the United Nations to improve their efforts to help all those affected, including both the displaced and their host communities.
The Panel began its deliberations in February 2020, drawing together expertise from government, international organizations, civil society and the private sector.
The Secretary-General has appointed eight members to the Panel, including two co-chairs:
Ms. Federica Mogherini (Co-Chair/Italy), the former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and former Vice-President of the European Commission;
Mr. Donald Kaberuka (Co-Chair/Rwanda), the former President of the African Development Bank and current Chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria;
Ms. Paula Gaviria Betancur (Colombia), the Director-General of Fundacion Compaz, the foundation created by Nobel Prize laureate Juan Manuel Santos to work on peacebuilding. She is the former Presidential Counsellor on Human Rights in Colombia and former head of the Government's Victims Unit;
Mr. Nasser Judeh (Jordan), a member of the Senate of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and a member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation. He served previously as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan as well as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Information, Minister of State for Media and Communications and official spokesman for the government of Jordan;
Mr. Per Heggenes (Norway), the CEO of IKEA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the company IKEA;
Mr. Mitiku Kassa Gutile (Ethiopia), the Commissioner for Emergency Response in Ethiopia responsible for the country’s efforts to address internal displacement;
Ms. Pauline Riak (South Sudan), the Chair of the Board of Directors at the Sudd Institute and Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba. She is a former Sudanese refugee who founded the Sudanese Women’s Association in Nairobi (SWAN);
Ms. Sima Samar (Afghanistan), member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation. She served previously as the Special Envoy of the President, State Minister for Human Rights and International Affairs in Afghanistan, Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), as well as Minister of Women's Affairs of Afghanistan, and as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Sudan.
