See the full report of Awn Shawkat Al Khasawnew

E/CN.4/Sub.2/1997/23

DECLARATION ON POPULATION TRANSFER AND THE

IMPLANTATION OF SETTLERS

Article 1
This Declaration sets standards which are applicable in all situations, including peacetime, disturbances and tensions, internal violence, internal armed conflict, mixed internal-international armed conflict, international armed conflict and public emergency situations. The norms contained in this Declaration must be respected under all circumstances.

Article 2
These norms shall be respected by, and are applicable to all persons, groups and authorities, irrespective of their legal status.

Article 3
Unlawful population transfers entail a practice or policy having the purpose or effect of moving persons into or out of an area, either within or across an international border, or within, into or out of an occupied territory, without the free and informed consent of the transferred population and any receiving population.

Article 4
1. Every person has the right to remain in peace, security and dignity in one's home, or on one's land and in one's country.

2. No person shall be compelled to leave his place of residence.

3. The displacement of the population or parts thereof shall not be ordered, induced or carried out unless their safety or imperative military reasons so demand. All persons thus displaced shall be allowed to return to their homes, lands, or places of origin immediately upon cessation of the conditions which made their displacement imperative.

Article 5
The settlement, by transfer or inducement, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies or by the Power exercising de facto control over a disputed territory is unlawful.

Article 6
Practices and polices having the purpose or effect of changing the demographic composition of the region in which a national, ethnic, linguistic, or other minority or an indigenous population is residing, whether by deportation, displacement, and/or the implantation of settlers, or a combination thereof, are unlawful.

Article 7
Population transfers or exchanges of population cannot be legalized by international agreement when they violate fundamental human rights norms or peremptory norms of international law.

Article 8
Every person has the right to return voluntarily, and in safety and dignity, to the country of origin and, within it, to the place of origin or choice. The exercise of the right to return does not preclude the victim's right to adequate remedies, including restoration of properties of which they were deprived in connection with or as a result of population transfers, compensation for any property that cannot be restored to them, and any other reparations provided for in international law.

Article 9
The above practices of population transfer constitute internationally wrongful acts giving rise to State responsibility and to individual criminal liability.

Article 10
Where acts or omissions prohibited in the present Declaration are committed, the international community as a whole and individual States, are under an obligation: (a) not to recognize as legal the situation created by such acts; (b) in ongoing situations, to ensure the immediate cessation of the act and the reversal of the harmful consequences; (c) not to render aid, assistance or support, financial or otherwise, to the State which has committed or is committing such act in the maintaining or strengthening of the situation created by such act.

Article 11
States shall adopt measures aimed at preventing the occurrence of population transfers and the implantation of settlers, including the prohibition of incitement to racial, religious or linguistic hatred.

Article 12
Nothing in these articles shall be construed as affecting the legal status of any authorities, groups or persons involved in situations of internal violence, disturbances, tensions or public emergency.

Article 13
1. Nothing in these articles shall be construed to restrict or impair the provisions of any international humanitarian or human rights instruments.

2. In case of different norms applicable to the same situation, the standard offering maximum protection to persons and groups subjected to population transfers, shall prevail.

ANNEX II TO FINAL REPORT OF SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR AL KHASAWNEH
E/CN.4/SUB.2/1997/23.