Introduction

IDP children in a camp near Kabul in Afghanistan, June 2008. [Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN]

In 2007, the estimated number of people displaced by armed conflicts and violence passed the 26 million mark, the highest global total since the early 1990s. It is also estimated that each year, approximately 50 million more people are displaced due to natural disasters.

Commonly, the displaced are forced to flee in moments, losing their possessions, land and separated from family and communities. Millions are left destitute with little or no access to basic services, to food, water, adequate shelter, or livelihoods. Displacement, whatever the context, is all too often only the beginning of an ordeal that may last for years or even decades, marked by suffering, discrimination and a daily fight for survival.

But unlike refugees, Internally Displaced People (IDPs) have not crossed an international border, and are thus not protected under international refugee law. Their predicament may, in some circumstances, be worse than that of refugees because many IDPs are persecuted by their own government, subject to abuse, discrimination and neglect in their own countries.
 
Although international attention to the plight of IDPs continues to grow, there has been no breakthrough in the last decade in reducing their number and the conditions in which many millions are living remain deplorable. The protection of IDP’s is, as the Under Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator, puts it, “the greatest gap in humanitarian response.” 

At this time, the ten-year anniversary of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, it is clear that more needs to be done to secure strengthened humanitarian and political action and protect displaced people that are increasingly at the forefront of humanitarian tragedies. 

The Human Face of Displacement, a Story from the UN News Center.

Also, hear the press briefing from USG John Holmes on the launch of the campaign on 18 December.