Colunistas do Lepadia

        Forcibly displacement within or beyond borders is often characterized by conflict and violence, forcing large numbers of people to flee their homes by acquiring the human condition of protection (of refugee or IDP) proper to those who forcibly move. Those who do not flee beyond borders remain forcibly displaced within their nations, where they continue to endure the dangers of ongoing conflict, violence and a variety of other challenges to their survival and dignity.

        The “internally displaced persons” (IDPs) are among the most marginalised sectors of the considered vulnerable groups for humanitarian concerns, as they live in precarious conditions in conflict-affected countries. The vast scale of this conflict-driven internal displacement, and its impact on the lives and livelihoods of both IDPs and the communities that host them, presents a humanitarian and development challenge of global proportions that needs to receive international recognition urgently. 

         It is necessary more than ever to have a deeper understanding of current research and debates on internal displacement, conflict and protection as well as analyse and evaluate the context of practical challenges in this field of knowledge. Regarding this objective, this study will cover conflict-driven internal displacement as well as similar forms of serious violence as a driver of internal displacement across the world. This analysis is inspired by the “Internal Displacement, Conflict and Protection” Course of the University of London.

       In today’s world, conflict-driven internal displacement tends to cluster in the world’s poorer countries and, as a result, IDPs tend to face increasing challenges regarding simultaneous catastrophes. By remaining within their own countries, they continue to face dangers associated with the armed conflicts affecting those countries, including coercion and control by non-state armed groups and the state armed forces of the IDP camps in conflict areas.

        Moreover, IDPs are often exposed to the wider conditions of poverty due to the fact of being displaced, since as the other modalities of forced displaced people, they leave their lives behind, including their possessions and their homes. In most conflict contexts, internal displacement represents a final protection strategy, when they do not see another way out rather than moving themselves away from danger, commonly to their relative’s houses and villages where conflict is less active.

        Indeed, beyond the direct economic losses, internal displacement as a phenomenon often simultaneously affects multiple aspects of the IDPs' lives, such as security, health, education, and access to essential services in general, when they often find themselves in a worse situation as compared both to other internal migrants and to refugees. In addition, the stories of the IDPs are given much less attention in the global news media when compared to the refugees and international migrants, a fact that has an important impact on stakeholders regarding financing for this modality of crisis, as being less visible than refugee flows, for example.

        The concept of “internally displaced persons” emerged from the humanitarian field as a technical term to describe those who were displaced but remained within their own country. In the 1990s the international community arrived at a consensus that IDPs should constitute a specific category of persons, in order to receive specific protection from the international and national legal orders. This concern leads to the creation of the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

        The Guiding Principles described thirty principles that regulate the prevention of displacement, protection and assistance of IDPs during displacement, and the need to facilitate solutions to internal displacement (durable solutions), representing the most important set of IDP protection standards globally. The UN Guiding Principles determine that States have the main responsibility for IDP protection, as well as define the responsibilities of the other actors, including the humanitarian sector.

       The UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement define IDPs 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 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". However, it is important to observe that this definition does not create a special international legal status for IDPs.

         Considering legal regulations and provisions, it is also important to highlight IDP national protection regulations, with the adoption of laws and policies at the national level to protect and assist IDPs in their own countries. In this same perspective, States in the African continent have developed legally-binding regional agreements on IDP protection, like, as an example, the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons, also known as the Kampala Convention which regulates the relation of non-state armed groups with IDPs and the right to not be arbitrarily displaced – as a method of war, covered by IHL.

      The responsibility for distinct aspects of assistance to IDPs (health, protection, water, sanitation and hygiene, food security, shelter, nutrition, education etc.) is shared out among different humanitarian actors like the UNHCR in CCCM (Camp Coordination and Camp Management) and protection operations; the World Health Organisation for health issues affecting IDPs; the International Committee of the Red Cross for access regarding civilians in armed conflicts, as well as the Unicef, the IOM, the DRC, among others. Then, it is widely recognized throughout the humanitarian sector as urgent to improve the response to the global crisis of internal displacement in cooperation with state and non-state actors.

        The protection of internally displaced persons is a key concern for the humanitarian field, particularly in contexts of armed conflict and acute situations of violence, where the protection risks are aggravated. The practical challenges for humanitarian actors of reaching and assisting IDPs in contexts of conflict can be described as a matter of access and negotiation. In addition, IDPs are usually involved actively in negotiating their security and developing their coping mechanisms for mitigating the dangers associated with conflict contexts, as protagonists of their own fate, as it should be.

       Depicting the needs of lives on the move means representing the most serious pains and obstacles and the most unimaginable consequences arising from the multiplication of vulnerabilities. The complexity of the accumulation of variables marks the human being with a greater or lesser supervening capacity for survival. Independently and in addition to being part of the vulnerable group "internally displaced", human beings are divided in their characteristic particularities, and diverse in their identities. Even so, such particularities that impose more or fewer challenges do not exempt them from suffering as human beings the difficulties and atrocities inherent to our way of life of exclusion and discrimination.

       Adding these points to pre-existing vulnerabilities (before the crisis or emergency happened) a perverse scenario is identified for the internally displaced around the world. Every human being in your universe must cross the paths of life, in a constant movement towards a safe environment where they can develop to their full potential. A difficult process in itself, it becomes more complex with the emergence of humanitarian crises, because with reduced mobility, and permanence in areas with few resources and generalized violence, the already few options become more scarce.

        In a reality like this, not having a choice can represent the maintenance of contexts of violence, the precariousness of work and employment situations and the creation of more risks to life and dignity. Even so, living the aggravating humanitarian crisis does not mean giving up living the old challenges, but facing a different reality, readapting and equipping oneself with new tools. Conditions before the crisis continue to exist, such as poor hygiene, crowding of people in shelters and other institutions due to socioeconomic difficulties, poor health because of poor nutrition, mental disorders resulting from trauma and obstacles experienced, and gender violence.

        In this context, being a humanitarian organization for this new reality and providing humanitarian assistance crossing the contexts of forced displacement and conflict, ceases, at this moment, to simply mean the delivery of essential supplies to begin to mean the construction of more dignified conditions, the "delivery” of larger products; providing not only conditions for life but dignified life.

        Therefore, meeting the main needs regarding humanitarian assistance in this context is a recognized first step. However, furthermore, providing aggregated value for each action, covering pre-established vulnerabilities, welcoming challenges and particularities of each identity and culture in each activity, considering their specific needs in each planning and ensuring their role as an agent of change for their own lives are conditions also essential to develop the humanitarian response to the IDPs world crisis.