Table of Cases;
Table of Treaties and Other Instruments;
Table of National Laws, Policies, and Strategies;
List of Abbreviations;
1. Internal Displacement and the Role of Law;
I. Introduction;
II. The Context: A Fourfold Crisis;
III. Internal Displacement;
A. Notion and Categories;
B. From Prevention to Durable Solutions: The Displacement Cycle;
IV. An Emerging Legal Regime;
A. Notion;
B. Origins;
C. Recent Developments;
D. Overview;
2. The Primary Responsibility of the State;
I. Introduction;
II. The Primary Duty and Responsibility of the State;
A. The Role of the State;
B. Sovereignty as Responsibility;
C. Political Will;
1. Situations;
2. Elements of Political Will;
III. The Roles of Other Actors;
IV. The Need for a New Narrative;
A. Problematic International Approaches;
B. Incoherent Narratives;
1. Humanitarian Discourse;
2. Human Rights Discourse;
3. Development Discourse;
4. Other Relevant Discourses;
C. Towards a Coherent Narrative: Internally Displaced Persons as Citizens;
V. Conclusions;
3. A Category of Special Concern?;
I. Introduction;
II. Who is an IDP?;
A. A Broad Consensus;
B. Four Elements;
1. Involuntary Movement;
2. From One’s Home or Places of Habitual Residence;
3. In Multiple Contexts;
4. Within Internationally Recognized Borders;
C. Description, not Status;
III. Specific Needs;
A. The Relevant Question;
B. Displacement-​Specific Needs;
1. Internally Displaced Persons;
2. Wider Displacement-​Affected Communities;
IV. Specific Human Rights Protection for People with Specific Needs;
V. Sovereignty as a Limit to IDP Protection?;
VI. IDP Protection: Undermining Asylum?;
A. IDP Protection and the Right to Seek Asylum;
B. IDP Protection and the Internal Relocation Alternative;
VII. Conclusions;
4. Treaties, Laws, and Other Standards;
I. Introduction;
II. The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement;
A. Key Features;
B. From Partial Criticism to Universal Recognition;
1. A Difficult Start;
2. Universal Recognition and Increasing Application;
3. Time for a Universal Convention on Internal Displacement?;
C. Legal Character;
1. The Guiding Principles as Soft Law;
2. The Guiding Principles and Customary International Law;
III. African Treaty Law;
A. The Great Lakes Protocols: IDP Protection in a Peacebuilding Context;
B. The Kampala Convention: Binding Obligations to Protect and Assist IDPs;
1. Background;
2. Content and Character;
IV. The Domestic Level: Laws, Policies, and Strategies;
A. Relevance;
B. Typology;
V. Peace Agreements;
VI. Why States Accept Binding Obligations;
A. A Duty to Enact Displacement-​Specific Domestic Instruments?;
B. Why States Commit to International Standards;
VII. Conclusions;
5. Protection from Displacement;
I. Introduction;
II. Prevention: A Complex Issue;
III. Preventing Displacement;
A. Preventing Conflict-​ and Violence-​Related Displacement;
1. Ensuring Respect for International Humanitarian Law;
2. Early Warning Mechanisms;
3. Physical Protection of Civilians and its Limitations;
4. Provisional Measures of Protection: The Role of Human Rights Bodies;
B. Preventing Disaster-​Induced Displacement;
1. The Duty to Protect Life;
2. Policy Options: Reducing Hazards, Vulnerability, and Exposure;
IV. The Prohibition of Arbitrary Displacement;
A. When is Displacement Arbitrary?;
B. Permissible Displacement: Evacuations and Relocations;
1. Notions;
2. Armed Conflict;
3. Disasters;
V. Modalities of Organized Evacuations and Relocations;
A. Emergency Evacuations;
B. Relocation in Situations Other than Emergencies;
VI. Criminal Accountability for Arbitrary Displacement;
A. International Criminal Law;
B. Domestic Law;
VII. Conclusions;
6. Protection During Displacement: The Law;
I. Introduction;
II. Discrimination-​Related Needs;
A. The Issue;
B. Multiple Forms of Discrimination;
1. Discrimination of and among Internally Displaced Persons;
2. Direct and Indirect Discrimination;
III. Life, Integrity, and Liberty and Security of the Person;
A. Overview;
B. Attacks on IDPs and Their Camps and Settlements;
C. Sexual and Gender-​Based Violence;
D. Closed Camps;
E. Recruitment of Children;
IV. Documentation;
V. Movement-​Related Needs;
A. Access to Safer Locations;
B. Return to Situations of Serious Harm;
VI. Family-​Related Needs;
VII. Political Participation;
VIII. Economic, Social, and Cultural Needs;
A. Introduction;
B. Food and Water;
C. Shelter and Housing;
D. Health;
E. Education;
F. Protection of Property and Possessions Left Behind;
IX. Conclusions;
7. International Humanitarian Action;
I. Introduction;
II. The Context;
A. The Primary Responsibility of National Actors;
1. Governments;
2. Courts and National Human Rights Institutions;
3. Civil Society and Community Organizations;
B. Multiple Situations;
III. A Right to Humanitarian Protection and Assistance?;
IV. Humanitarian Assistance and Protection;
A. Humanitarian Assistance;
B. Humanitarian Protection;
V. International Actors;
A. Humanitarian Organizations;
B. From the Collaborative to the Cluster Approach;
C. Human Rights Mechanisms;
VI. Humanitarian Principles;
A. Sources and Notions;
B. Challenges;
1. Humanity and Impartiality;
2. Neutrality and Independence;
C. Emerging Humanitarian Principles?;
VII. The Challenge: Humanitarian Access;
A. The Requirement of Consent;
B. The Prohibition of Arbitrary Denial of Humanitarian Access;
1. Increasing Recognition;
2. Legal Foundations;
3. Arbitrariness;
VIII. Conclusions;
8. Durable Solutions: The Concept;
I. Introduction;
II. When Does Displacement End?;
A. Three Approaches;
B. What the Guiding Principles and the Kampala Convention Say;
C. The IASC Framework on Durable Solutions;
1. Content;
2. Character;
III. A Right to a Durable Solution?;
A. Solutions as an Inherent Element of Human Rights Guarantees;
B. Solutions as an Element of the Right to Reparation;
C. Assessment;
IV. Three Options;
A. The Right to Choose;
1. Relevance;
2. Legal Foundation;
3. Restrictions;
B. The Right to Return;
1. Legal Foundation;
2. Restrictions;
3. The Prohibition of Forcible Return;
C. The Right to Information, Consultation, and Participation;
1. Information and Consultation;
2. Participation;
V. Making Solutions Durable;
A. Safety and Security;
B. Basic Services;
C. Livelihoods and Employment;
D. Housing, Land, and Property;
1. Sources;
2. Restitution or Compensation?;
3. Key Principles;
E. Documentation, Family Reunification, and Participation in Public Affairs;
F. Effective Remedies and Justice;
VI. Conclusions;
9. Durable Solutions in Practice;
I. Introduction;
II. Understanding Protracted Internal Displacement;
A. Notion;
B. Multidimensional Impacts;
1. Impacts on IDPs;
2. Wider Socio-​Economic Impacts;
C. Causes;
D. Insufficient Responses;
III. International Responses;
A. Solutions as a Development and Peacebuilding Task;
B. The New Way of Working;
C. The High-​Level Panel on Internal Displacement;
IV. Institutional Challenges;
A. Strengthening Governmental Will and Capacity;
B. Institutionalizing IDP and Societal Engagement;
C. Building Partnerships with the Private Sector;
D. Making the UN System Fit for Purpose;
E. Building Predictable Financing Mechanisms;
V. Principles;
VI. Conclusions;
10. Conclusion: Adequate Norms but Weak Governancel
I. Introduction;
II. Adequate Norms;
III. Weak Governance;
IV. Outlook;
Select Bibliography;
Index.

"This book examines the relevance of international human rights and humanitarian law, underpinning the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the Kampala Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, to preventing displacement, protecting and assisting IDPs during displacement, and finding durable solutions for them. It discusses to what extent present law is able to contribute to preventing, responding to, and resolving internal displacement and to protect the rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), identifies its weaknesses and examines ways to improve action. These are highly relevant issues at a time when the world faces more than 60 million people displaced by armed conflict and disasters, and when climate change will trigger large-scale displacement in the future. The book's analysis is embedded in and reflects the realities of internal displacement and the challenges faced by displaced individuals and communities, their hosts, governments, and international actors. In line with its human rights approach, the book promotes a narrative that, based on the concept of sovereignty as responsibility, emphasises the primary responsibility of states to address the needs of IDPs and views them as citizens with rights and agency rather than as vulnerable beneficiaries of humanitarian action. The book concludes that the body of relevant law amounts to an emerging legal regime on internal displacement whose substantive norms are largely adequate, but which faces specific institutional challenges at domestic and international levels that weaken efforts to address the plight of IDPs"-- Provided by publisher.