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Internal displacement: global trends in conflict-induced displacement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2010

Nina M. Birkeland
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Abstract

At the end of 2008, the number of people internally displaced by conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations across the world stood at 26 million, a record high since the IDMC started to monitor internal displacement in 1998. This high figure remains in spite of the growing recognition and implementation of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. This article presents the findings of the latest IDMC survey on trends in internal displacement, challenges faced by displaced populations, and the measures taken to address these.

Type
Displacement
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 91 , Issue 875: Displacement , September 2009 , pp. 491 - 508
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2009

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References

1 This article is a summary of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) publication Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2008, IDMC, Geneva, April 2009, available at http://www.internal-displacement.org/idmc/website/resources.nsf/(httpPublications)/0605361027488A28C12575A90042305B?OpenDocument (visited 7 September 2009).

2 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, UN Doc. E/CN./4/1998/53/Add.2, 17 April 1998, reprinted in International Review of the Red Cross, No. 324, September 1998, pp. 545–556. Concern over the vulnerability of IDPs led the UN Commission on Human Rights to ask the Representative on IDPs, Francis Deng, to examine the extent to which existing international law provides adequate coverage for IDPs (1992), and to develop an appropriate framework for IDPs (1996). Accordingly, the Representative, with the support of a team of international legal experts, formulated the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which were presented to the Commission in 1998.

3 Note on figures: Producing reliable figures on conflict-induced internal displacement in politically sensitive contexts is challenging. In most countries affected by internal displacement, existing data on IDPs are often incomplete, unreliable, out of date or inaccurate. Disaggregated data are only available in a few countries. Arriving at a commonly agreed numbers of IDPs implies government recognition of the displacement crisis, and a complex identification and registration of IDPs who are often mixed with other affected populations. The best-quality data are normally available for the number of displaced, whereas figures on return or other durable solutions are systematically more incomplete or totally unavailable. IDMC seeks and compiles data from national governments, UN and international organizations, national and international NGOs, human rights organizations and the media. IDMC also carries out field missions to a number of countries every year.

4 The Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement/University of Bern, Expert Seminar on protracted IDP situations, Seminar report from seminar hosted by UNHCR and Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Geneva, 21–22 June 2007, p. 2, available at http://www.brookings.edu/events/2007/~/media/Files/events/2007/0621_displacement/20070621_displacement.pdf, visited 14 September 2009.

5 UN Habitat, State of the World's Cities 2008/9, Earthscan, London/Sterling, 2008, p. 15.

6 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, above note 2, Guiding Principles 10–11.

7 Ibid, Guiding Principles 7 (2) and 18.

8 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, above note 2, Guiding Principle 21.

9 Ibid, Guiding Principle 20.

10 Ibid, Guiding Principle 22.

11 Ibid, Guiding Principle 4 (2).

12 Ibid, Guiding Principle 11 (b).

13 Ibid, Guiding Principle 13 (1).

14 Ibid, Guiding Principle 17 (3).

15 Ibid, Guiding Principle 23 (2).

16 UN General Assembly, Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, UN Doc. A/63/227, 6 August 2008, para. 43.

17 Coalition Against the Use of Child Soldiers, Child Soldiers Global Report 2008, pp. 22–24, available at http://www.childsoldiersglobalreport.org/ (visited 9 September 2009).

18 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, above note 2, Guiding Principle 11 (2).

19 Ibid, Guiding Principles 18 (2), 19, 20 (3) and 23 (3).

20 Ibid, Guiding Principles 7 (3)(d) and 18 (3).

21 Gender-Based Violence Global Technical Support Project, Gender-Based Violence in Populations Affected by Armed Conflict, Reproductive Health Response in Conflict Consortium, Arlington, 2004.

22 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, above note 2, Guiding Principle 4 (2).

23 Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Humanitarian Action and Older Persons. An essential brief for humanitarian actors, October 2008, available at http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/490b0c102.html (visited 11 August 2009).

24 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, above note 2, Guiding Principle 9.

25 Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, adopted 27 June 1989, entered into force 5 September 1991, Art 16.

26 Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, When Displacement Ends: A Framework for Durable Solutions, June 2007, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/469f6bed2.html (visited 9 September 2009).

27 IDMC, above note 1, p. 25.

28 Walter Kälin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, Statement to the Human Rights Council, 12 March 2009, available at http://www.brookings.edu/speeches/2009/0312_internal_displacement_kalin.aspx (visited 14 September 2009).