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II.4 Internally displaced persons

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

  1. 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

  1. The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, UN doc. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2 (11 February 1998).
  2. London Declaration of International Law Principles on Internally Displaced Persons, 2000, International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 12, no. 4 (2000), p. 672.

UNHCR

  1. UNHCR,’Internal Displacement: Responsibility and Action’, Handbook for Parliamentarians, No. 20, October 2013.
  2. Global Protection Cluster Working Group, ’Handbook for the Protection of Internally Displaced Persons’, June 2010.

Readings

Core

  1. 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.
  2. W. Kälin, ‘The Role of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement’, Forced Migration Review, (October 2005), pp. 8–9.

Extended

  1. R. Cohen, ‘Strengthening Protection of IDPs: The UN’s Role’, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (Winter/Spring 2006), pp. 101–109.
  2. 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.
  3. N. Geissler, ‘The International Protection of Internally Displaced Persons’, International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 11, no. 3 (1999), pp. 451–478.
  4. 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.
  5. S. Ojeda, ‘Kampala Convention on Internally Displaced Persons: Some International Humanitarian Law Aspects’, Refugee Survey Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 3 (2010), pp. 58–66.
  6. 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.

 II.4 Internally Displaced PersonsII.4 Internally Displaced Persons