Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in Conflict Regions

Internally displaced persons, or IDPs, as defined by the United Nations’ Refugee

Agency, are people that, unlike refugees, “have not crossed an international border

to find sanctuary, but have remained inside their home countries”1. Following the

principle of sovereignty, the international community’s role on the protection of IDPs’

rights should always be secondary or complementary to the State or nation in which

such persons are internally displaced. Like the rest of the world’s population, IDPs are

entitled to the same human rights as those established by international human rights

legislature and customary law. Furthermore, in periods of armed conflict, they have

the same right to the protections provided by international humanitarian law as other

civilians.The Special Representative for Internally Displaced Persons of the UN Secretary-

General estimates the Global IDP population at 25 million. The Internal Displacement

Monitoring Center (IDMC) provides an estimate of 26 million people.

IDPs and returnees, for obvious reasons, cannot always be assured sufficient access to

healthcare, medicines, sanitary facilities, food, water and shelter. Their dependency

on NGOs and governmental or international assistance and aid is usually near total.

Thus, if the supply of assistance does not meet their demand, IDPs and returnees will

suffer from deprived access to these basic human needs. This is in direct violation of

Article 25.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which sets out that all human

beings are entitled to “a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of

himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care. IDPs and returnees fall victim to abuse of their Human Rights regarding work and education. This violates Articles 23 (1) and 26 of the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights. These too are routine violations of Human Rights against IDPs and

refugees, based on discrimination because of their status. Most at risk of these

violations are women, children, elderly persons, ethnic minorities and majorities,

religious sects, people of persecuted sexualities and disabled people.

The Human Rights of IDPs and returnees are usually destined to be routinely and

repeatedly violated in conflict-stricken areas. This applies both worldwide, from the

large swathes of Africa racked by civil conflict, to the Caucasus region, the Balkans

and Ukraine. Any attempt to enforce and advance the Human Rights of IDPs and

returnees involves 3 important steps.

1. Ending discrimination based upon membership of a group,

2. Ending the process of coerced or forced displacement from the community of

origin

3. Bring about and assisting in the return and reintegration process: how the returned

adapt to their former surroundings

In the Germanys view, in order for such an attempt to be successful, it is imperative that the existing international legal framework (e.g. the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement) is

upheld. In addition, the Human Rights of returnees need to be clearly explained and

enforced. Clearly more work must be done, including special support by the UNHRC,

to ensure the protection of the Human rights of IDPs and returnees, as they are almost

always among the most vulnerable groups in conflict zones.