25m INTERNALLY DISPLACED BY CONFLICT, SAYS SURVEY (www.idpprojecct.org)
Some 25 million people are now internally displaced due to conflicts that
have spread since the Cold War, according to a major new survey published
today. Internally displaced people (IDPs) are a central humanitarian
challenge of our time; outnumbering conventional refugees by two-to-one and
nearly always receiving less protection, says the four-year survey by the
Global IDP Project.
"The 2002 Global IDP Survey confirms two worrying trends: first, that large
numbers of innocent civilians are being forced from their homes by increased
insecurity in the world; and secondly, that many of these people remain
officially neglected by government authorities," said Elisabeth Rasmusson,
the project's head.
More than half of the world's displaced people are in Africa, the survey
finds, most of them (10m of 13.5m) concentrated in Sudan, Angola and Congo.
Afghanistan, Indonesia, Turkey and Colombia have over a million each. Iraq,
Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka, Burma and India have over half-a-million each. In
Burundi and Lebanon, IDPs make about 10% of the population. Though smaller
in number, IDPs in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Chechnya (the Russian
Federation) have faced widespread human rights abuses.
The global IDP crisis is one of the great humanitarian challenges of our
time, states the survey, noting that in most of the 48 countries covered,
IDPs struggle to survive with inadequate shelter, few resources and no
protection. Warring parties often block humanitarian aid, unnecessarily
worsening malnutrition and disease. Moreover IDPs - mainly women and
children - have no one to protect them from multiple human rights
violations: including attacks, torture, forced labour and sexual
exploitation.
National governments do little to protect IDPs because they lack resources
or political will; many IDPs are from minority groups. The international
community and donor governments, meanwhile, also pay little attention to
protection needs and underfund humanitarian programmes.
While IDPs have received more attention recently within the United Nations,
and legal guidelines exist to protect them; these efforts will have to be
greatly enhanced to improve the lives of IDPs, some of the world's most
insecure people, or respond adequately to this global crisis.
The Global IDP Project, based in Geneva, is mandated by the United Nations
to monitor internal displacement globally. It is part of the Norwegian
Refugee Council, an organization that has assisted refugees worldwide since
1953. The Global IDP Survey 2002 is published by Earthscan Publications
London, and is based on four years' work monitoring of displacement
worldwide. See the Global IDP Database www.idpprojecct.org.
To get a copy of the Global IDP Survey 2002, or to find out more, contact:
Andrew Lawday - email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: +41 (0)22 799 0703 / Mob: 0797979439
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