The “root causes” of forced displacement and conflict prevention: an approach to the Syrian war

Abstract

According to the Global Compact on Refugees, adopted on the 17th December 2018, the signatory States assume the commitment to tackle “the root causes of forced displacements”. However, this term is politically and legally imprecise. Only if it is provided with a real content, will we be able to affirm that beyond mere rhetoric, we find ourselves facing a terminological and substantive challenge. The article is based on the premise that one of the root causes of forced displacements is armed conflict. Therefore, to tackle the root causes requires that States examine the origins of conflicts and ways to prevent them. Nevertheless, this is not what happens in practice. The Security Council resolutions adopted in the framework of the Syrian armed conflict hardly refer to the impact of the conflict on the displacement of the population. This study critically analyses this omission, as well as the consideration of forced evacuation as a war crime, founded on a weak legal basis by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, named by the Human Rights Council.