Internally displaced personFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who has been forced
to leave their home for reasons such as natural or man-made disasters, including
religious or political persecution or war, 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.
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, 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 any attempt by an outside body to tell a nation how
it should treat its own citizens has been 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.
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Countries with significant IDP populations
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IDPs by country
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References
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External links
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