The Representative of the Secretary General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons Walter Kälin, at the end of a visit to Georgia on Saturday, expressed grave concern at the lack of effective protection of the population in the ‘buffer zone.’ He welcomed the Government’s prompt response to the crisis of displacement in the aftermath of hostilities, and its plans to find durable solutions for all internally displaced persons – including those in protracted displacement since the early 1990s – who cannot return to their homes in the near future, but deplored the lack of unimpeded humanitarian access to Tskhinvali and conflict-affected areas.

The Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Mr. Walter Kälin, will visit Georgia at the invitation of the Government from 1 to 4 October 2008.

A humanitarian assessment mission, led by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and comprising representatives of key UN humanitarian agencies, viz., the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) and a representative of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), will visit South Ossetia and Tbilisi  from 17-20 September.