Main Debates
- Is the extension of UNHCR’s mandate sufficient or is there a need for a specialized agency?
- Should there be a separate treaty for the protection of internally displaced persons?
Main Points
- Emergence of IDPs as a category of individuals in need of protection in the 1990s
- International border as a defining criterion
- Challenge of implementing human rights treaties to offer sufficient protection for the internally displaced
Treaty
- African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention), adopted on 23 October 2009 and entered into force on 6 December 2012.
Soft Law
- The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, UN doc. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2 (11 February 1998).
- London Declaration of International Law Principles on Internally Displaced Persons, 2000, International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 12, no. 4 (2000), p. 672.
UNHCR
- UNHCR,’Internal Displacement: Responsibility and Action’, Handbook for Parliamentarians, No. 20, October 2013.
- Global Protection Cluster Working Group, ’Handbook for the Protection of Internally Displaced Persons’, June 2010.
Readings
Core
- A. Adebe, ‘The African Union Convention on Internally Displaced Persons: its Codification Background, Scope, and Enforcement Challenges’, Refugee Survey Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 3 (2010), pp. 28–57.
- W. Kälin, ‘The Role of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement’, Forced Migration Review, (October 2005), pp. 8–9.
Extended
- R. Cohen, ‘Strengthening Protection of IDPs: The UN’s Role’, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (Winter/Spring 2006), pp. 101–109.
- H. Entwisle, ‘Tracing Cascades: The Normative Development of the U.N. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement’, Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, vol. 19 (2004–2005), pp. 369–390.
- N. Geissler, ‘The International Protection of Internally Displaced Persons’, International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 11, no. 3 (1999), pp. 451–478.
- K. Luopajarvi, ‘Is there an Obligation on States to Accept International Humanitarian Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons under International Law?’, International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 15, no. 3 (2003), pp. 678–714.
- S. Ojeda, ‘Kampala Convention on Internally Displaced Persons: Some International Humanitarian Law Aspects’, Refugee Survey Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 3 (2010), pp. 58–66.
- P. Orchard, ‘Perils of Humanitarianism: Refugee and IDP Protection in Situations of Regime-induced Displacement’, Refugee Survey Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 1 (2010), pp. 38–60.
Editor’s Note
Discussions of internally displaced persons in Africa and in the Americas appear in Sections III.4.5 and IV.4, respectively.