_{In this picture form left to right: Paula Gaviria Betancur, Mitiku Kassa Gutile, Pauline Elaine Riak, Federica Mogherini, UN Secretary-General, Donald Kaberuka, Nasser Judeh, Sima Samar, Per Heggenes}

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 High-Level Panel will work to increase global attention to internal displacement, while also developing concrete recommendations for Member States, the United Nations system and other relevant stakeholders on how to better prevent, respond, and achieve solutions to internal displacement.

The Panel began its deliberations in February 2020 and is expected to submit recommendations to the UN Secretary-General within a year of its first meeting.

This High-Level Panel draws together expertise from government, international organizations, civil society and the private sector. It also includes representation from countries affected by displacement.

The Secretary-General has appointed eight members to the Panel, including two co-chairs. The Panel will be co-chaired by Ms. Federica Mogherini (Italy), the former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and former Vice-President of the European Commission, and Mr. Donald Kaberuka (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.

Other Panel members include:

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), the Special Envoy of the President and State Minister for Human Rights and International Affairs in Afghanistan, as well as a member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation. She served previously as Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), as Minister of Women's Affairs of Afghanistan, and as UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Sudan.