This evaluation is one of a series being carried out by UNHCR’s Policy Development and Evaluation Service (PDES), focusing on the organization’s role in the return and reintegration of refugees and other displaced people. These evaluations are being used to test and refine UNHCR’s reintegration policy; to improve the effectiveness and enhance the impact of UNHCR’s reintegration programmes; and to deepen UNHCR’s understanding of the reintegration process.

Altai Consulting was mandated by ILO and UNHCR to conduct research on the situation of Afghan returnees in order to assess the main patterns of integration in the Afghan labor market and the responses provided in 3 major cities of Afghanistan. This study is an integral part of the overall ILO-UNHCR “Cooperation Toward Comprehensive Solutions for Afghan Displacement” project launched in May 2004. It will complement other ongoing work implemented by the ILO in Afghanistan to support sustainable employment opportunities and reconstruction of the infrastructure in this country.

The chapter focuses on the human rights situation of returning refugees (returnees) and internally displaced persons (IDPs) — it thus concerns the human rights of persons who are displaced from their homes, but who are within their own country. After highlighting the particular relevance of international human rights standards to the protection of these categories of people, the chapter also seeks to identify ways in which UN human rights field operations can respond to their needs. It thus addresses the human rights protection needs of returnees and other displaced persons within their own country and while outside of any formal camp situation. The chapter looks in particular at protection needs during displacement or settlement in a non-camp situation, and during the process of returning home. The protection of the human rights of persons living in camps — be they refugees, returnees or IDPs — raises a series of specific concerns which are addressed in Chapter X: “Monitoring and Protecting the Human Rights of Refugees and/or Internally Displaced Persons Living in Camps”.