The Campaign is a local, state, national and international initiative dedicated to ensuring that all levels of the US government comply with its domestic and international legal obligations and norms concerning the rights and protections accorded to persons displaced by natural disaster.

The US Human Rights Network, in response to the devastation and displacement caused by Hurricane Katrina and further exacerbated by Hurricane Rita, has initiated this broad based campaign that calls on the United States government to recognize Katrina survivors as Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) and to devise policies and practices grounded in the spirit of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. Moreover, we call on our member organizations, allies and friends to join us in the struggle to ensure that the rights of internally displaced Gulf Coast residents are protected and the Government creates the conditions for their return, resettlement and reintegration. Securing the "right to return" is the centerpiece of this initiative. The campaign has sought to leverage U.S. government acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the category of internal displacement within its borders, as it has in its United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Internally Displaced Persons Policy, and compliance with the spirit of the U.N. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, more than twenty-five million persons around the world have been displaced as a consequence of natural disasters. The campaign goals are to:

1. Promote, educate and provide training to stakeholders including IDPs, elected officials, service providers, grassroots community-based organizations and the general public about the U.N. Guiding Principles of Internal Displacement, particularly the "right to return"; and demonstrate how the principles can be used as an advocacy tool and capacity building initiative.
2. Enhance the capacity of Gulf Coast organizations to effectively utilize the UN Guiding Principles as a framework for advocacy in support of reconstruction, rehabilitation and repatriation policies.

3. Raise national awareness of the IDP concept by supporting advocacy efforts leading toward the passage of national legislation that provides legal protection for displaced persons.

4. Coordinate and support international advocacy with the objective of compelling the U.S. government to design and implement Gulf Coast reconstruction policies that are informed by the IDP framework.

5. Support state and local efforts to pass resolutions that recognize the human rights of hurricane Katrina and Rita victims.

6. Expand the Network's "Internally Displaced Person-Human Rights Campaign" by developing and implementing a strategy that integrates a cadre of student/youth leaders into the planning and implementation phases.

7. Utilize the campaign to provide general human rights education to the broader domestic population.

For more information on the campaign contact campaign coordinator Kali Akuno at kakuno@ushrnetwork.org