Internally Displaced Persons

The phenomenon of internal displacement has two distinctive features. The population movement is coerced or involuntary, and the movement occurs within national borders. These core elements are reflected in the most widely used definition of internally displaced persons as,

"persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border."1

The list of causes in this definition is drawn in part from the broad refugee definitions in use in Africa and Latin America. In addition, persons uprooted by disasters, who would not qualify as refugees were they to cross a border, are included in the definition of internally displaced persons because it is possible that they, too, might in some cases become victims of discrimination and other human rights violations as a result of their displacement and therefore need protection.

Moreover, the phrase “in particular” indicates that the list of causes is not exhaustive. Persons displaced by development projects, for instance, might also require special protection, in cases where they are forcibly displaced without adequate resettlement, compensation, or respect for human rights. By contrast, it is clear that economic migrants, or people who move voluntarily from one place to another, are not included.

Important Points

  1. The definition of internally displaced persons is not a legal definition but simply a descriptive one. It does not confer a legal status in the same sense that recognition as a “refugee” does. This is not necessary because, unlike refugees who have lost the protection of their own country and therefore need substitute international protection and require a special status to access this protection, the rights and guarantees to which internally displaced persons are entitled stem from the fact that they are human beings and citizens or habitual residents of a particular State.
  2. Internally displaced persons have special needs precisely because of their displacement. This is true whether they are in camps, have merged into urban slums, or are hiding to avoid identification.
  3. The purpose of paying specific attention to the plight of internally displaced persons as such is not to confer on them a privileged status, but to ensure that their unique needs are addressed, along with those of other groups.
  4. The conditions of danger and deprivation that characterize situations of internal displacement can take a tremendous toll: the highest mortality and malnutrition rates recorded in humanitarian emergencies this past decade have involved internally displaced persons. Uprooted from their homes, separated from their community support networks and often from their families, and shorn of their resource base, internally displaced persons suddenly find themselves stripped of the most basic sources of security and survival. Compounding their plight, displacement exposes its victims to additional vulnerabilities and risks.
  5. Internally displaced persons frequently remain caught in areas of armed conflict and under threat of armed attack, physical assault, sexual violence, and forced conscription. They can be particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. Many lack adequate food, water, shelter, and medical care.

What You Need To Know About...
National and International Responsibility

Internally displaced persons often are uprooted for the same reasons as refugees. However, because they remain within their own countries and under the jurisdiction of their governments, they are excluded from the international protection afforded to refugees. Had these persons, having been uprooted for the same reasons as refugees, crossed a border, they would have a well established international system of protection and assistance to turn to under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Primary responsibility for assisting and protecting internally displaced persons rests with their own governments. Should governments prove unable or unwilling to discharge this responsibility, however, governments are expected to invite or at least accept international assistance for ensuring the welfare and security of internally displaced persons.

The common overriding objective of international assistance should be to assist governments in meeting their obligations toward their own internally displaced populations. The nature of international engagement with the internally displaced and the specific agencies involved may vary from situation to situation.

1 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (Introduction)