More than 40 million people are displaced within the borders of their own country by conflict. Each year, another 25 million people on average are displaced due to disaster.

Twenty years ago, on 17 April 1998, the Commission on Human Rights adopted the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. They remain the most widely recognized standard to prevent, respond to and resolve internal displacement. The unprecedented volume and duration of internal displacement today reminds us that much more work needs to be done.

The 20th Anniversary of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (GP20) is a time to reflect on what has worked over the last 20 years and what more needs to be done to reduce displacement and support the displaced. It is an opportunity to empower internally displaced people in the responses and solutions that affect them, strengthen partnerships and operational responses and promote a stronger political agenda on internal displacement.

2018 is the time to amplify the voices of one of the world’s most vulnerable mobile populations.