World Refugee Day: time to redouble efforts to protect the internally displaced

On the occasion of World Refugee Day, the campaigning group IDP Action urges attention to be focused on internally displaced persons (IDPs), those forced to flee their homes, but caught within their own state's borders. Across Africa, millions of IDPs are, in the absence of coordinated assistance, left at the extreme of vulnerability.

The comparison in the number of refugees and IDPs in Africa is stark: there are currently over twice as many IDPs in one country, Sudan, as there are refugees in the whole of of Africa. There are more IDPs in five African countries — Algeria (1 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, 1.4 million), Somalia (c.1 million, of whom 600,000 were newly displaced in 2007), Sudan (5.8 million), and Uganda (1.3 million) — than there are refugees in the rest of the world. The lack of an effective international response to the problem of internal displacement, at its most acute in Africa, means that millions of men, women and children remain at the mercy of the forces responsible for their displacement.

"More than fifty years ago the world signalled its commitment to tackling the issue of cross-border displacement by signing into force the United Nations Refugee Convention. The need now is to confront another critical displacement challenge, internal displacement, and provide the same robust level of protection and assistance that has saved and enhanced the lives of countless refugees", said Frank Smith, IDP Action's Policy and Communications Director.

While in 2007 the number of refugees in Africa declined by 6%, the number of IDPs continued to soar, fuelled in particular by new waves of conflict in Sudan, the DRC and Somalia. Insecure and lacking the means and support to fulfil their basic needs, many live a hand-to-mouth existence waiting for the time when they are able to return to their homes. One IDP interviewed by IDP Action in November 2007 in her home, a slum on the outskirts of Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, summed up the plight of millions:

"Finding food is difficult, sleeping is difficult, life here is very difficult. My child who is in his third year of school keeps getting chased away from class because we don't have any money to pay the fees... it is too difficult... they even wanted to chase us away from this land. Our girls resort to prostitution and become pregnant."

Despite the increase in IDP numbers and the terrible conditions most of them face, there is a glimmer of hope: the African Union (AU) is discussing a draft Convention for the Prevention of Internal Displacement and the Protection of and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons in Africa which, if adopted and implemented correctly, could have a dramatic effect on the welfare of Africa's IDPs.

"The AU IDPs Convention is potentially a major breakthrough. But there is still work to be done to make the Convention into an effective instrument: there are elements of the current draft that are vague or inconsistent with other international human rights standards, making it difficult for governments to implement. A legally-binding framework would make a big difference to the issue of internal displacement, so it is all the more important that AU member states act to make the Convention as strong as possible and are fully committed to ensuring that it moves from words on paper to tangible actions to improve the lives of IDPs", concluded Frank Smith.

Background

Together with Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights, Refugees International and the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, IDP Action has developed a commentary on the draft Convention for the Prevention of Internal Displacement and the Protection of and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons in Africa. The commentary details those areas where the Convention, which is scheduled to be adopted at a summit in November, needs to be refined in order to become a truly useful agreement. Copies of this commentary can be obtained from policy@idpaction.org.

Contact

London: Frank Smith, +44 (0) 790 8900893

Amsterdam: Jeremy Smith, +31 (0) 20 6233218

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