Internally displaced person

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Tailor in Labuje IDP camp in Uganda

An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who has been forced to leave their home for reasons such as religious or political persecution, war or natural disaster, but has not crossed an international border. The term is a subset of the more general displaced person. There is no legal definition of IDP, as there is for refugee [1], but the rule of thumb is that if the person in question would be eligible for refugee status if he or she crossed an international border then the IDP label is applicable. IDPs are not technically refugees because they have not crossed an international border, but are sometimes casually referred to as refugees.

1 Overview
2 Countries with significant IDP populations
3 IDPs by country
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Overview

The United Nations via the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recently agreed on non-binding Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement based on the refugee instruments, which defines 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." [2]

Nevertheless, there is no dedicated UN agency to deal with IDPs. This has led the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to act as ad hoc lead on IDP matters. As a result, it has been criticized for treating IDPs as less important adjuncts to their core mission to assist refugees.

There are currently nearly 25 million IDPs worldwide^{[citation needed]}, roughly twice the total number of refugees. Internally displaced persons do not have a specific international legal instrument that applies to them as do refugees, because an attempt by an outside body to tell a nation how it should treat its own citizens has been typically seen as a violation of the principle of national sovereignty and self-determination. This principle has come under pressure in recent years by those who feel a moral imperative to stop gross abuse of citizens by their governments. Recent examples include use by the United States as a primary justification for military intervention during the Kosovo War and a secondary justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

[edit] Countries with significant IDP populations

Burundi due to fighting between government and Hutu rebel groups.
Colombia due to the war between the government, FARC, the AUC and other armed groups
Cyprus due to the intercommunal troubles of 1964 and the 1974 Turkish invasion and aftermath.
The Democratic Republic of Congo due to ongoing war
Ethiopia due to the Somali Civil War (mainly in Hartishek refugee camp).
Iraq due to forced displacement during Saddam Hussein's regime, and fighting between the Multi-National Force and Iraqi insurgent groups.
Indian-administered Kashmir due to anti-Hindu and anti-India insurgency
Sudan due to civil conflicts in the South and Darfur in the west
Uganda due to the insurgency of the Lord's Resistance Army
West Bank and Gaza due to house demolitions and land confiscation by the government of Israel.

[edit] IDPs by country

Figures below taken in large part from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.^[1]

Afghanistan—167,000-200,000
Angola—40,000-340,000
Azerbaijan—578,545
Bosnia and Herzegovina—309,240
Burundi—170,000
Colombia—1,580,396 - 3,410,041
Côte d'Ivoire—500,000
Democratic Republic of the Congo—2,330,000
India—600,000+ due to December 2004 tsunami and 300,000 Kashmiri Hindus due to anti-India insurgency ^[2]
Indonesia—342,000-600,000
Iraq—1,000,000+
Israel-150,000-420,000 Internally Displaced Palestinians and Bedouins, most of whom are Arab citizens of Israel
Myanmar (Burma)—526,000
Russia—339,000
Sri Lanka—352,374
Turkey—350,000 - 1,000,000+
Sudan—6,000,000
Uganda—1,400,000
United States—±1,000,000 from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita^[3]

[edit] Notes

^ IDP statistic page, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
^ "India", CIA World Factbook (accessed 7 December 2006)
^ Katrina and Rita IDPs are not of concern to, and therefore not counted by, UNHCR (2005 Global Refugee TrendsPDF, UNHCR, Table 14, p. 94). They therefore do not appear in many international numbers. However, they are often discussed under the IDP definition. (Example: Harvard Educational Review editorial)

[edit] References

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Refugees by Numbers.
Ilaria Bottigliero, "Displaced Persons Caught between War and Peace in Asia", 2 ISIL Yearbook of International Humanitarian and Refugee Law (2002), pp. 117-133.