[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] on Sunday urged [press release] the international community to provide more support for central Philippine communities devastated by powerful typhoon Haiyan last month. The rebuilding effort is based on a four-year plan, which amounts to about $ 8.17 billion, will restore the affected areas. The typhoon killed about 6,000 and displaced millions of local citizens. UN and its partners have also launched a one-year Strategic Response Plan for nearly $800 million that is only 30 percent funded. UN SG called the international community to speed up support and noted that more than 4 million of individuals have received food assistance while other supports, such as hygiene kits, water kits and water treatment units, were provided.

In February, the Congress of the Philippines [official website] passed a bill [JURIST report] to protect the rights of more than one million internally displaced persons (IDPs). The bill outlines specific protections for displaced persons and offers compensation for IDPs who lose homes and property. The UN High Commission for Refugees has estimated that approximately 300,000 people were displaced throughout the Mindanao region between January and October of last year alone due to natural disaster and rebellion, prompting the passage [JURIST report] of the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013 [text, PDF].