OUVRAGE : B. Ní­ Ghráinne, Internally Displaced Persons and International Refugee Law

Bríd NÍ GHRÁINNE

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are persons who have been forced to leave their places of residence as a result of armed conflict, violence, human rights violations, or natural or human-made disasters, but who have not crossed an international border. There are about 55 million IDPs in the world today, outnumbering refugees by roughly 2:1. Although IDPs and refugees have similar wants, needs and fears, IDPs have traditionally been seen as a domestic issue, and the international legal and institutional framework of IDP protection is still in its relative infancy.

This book explores to what extent the protection of IDPs complements or conflicts with international refugee law. Three questions form the core of the book's analysis: What is the legal and normative relationship between IDPs and refugees? To what extent is an individual's real risk of internal displacement in their country of origin relevant to the qualification and cessation of refugee status? And to what extent is the availability of IDP protection measures an alternative to asylum? It argues that the IDP protection framework does not, as a matter of law, undermine refugee protection. The availability of protection within a country of origin cannot be a substitute for granting refugee status unless it constitutes effective protection from persecution and there is no real risk of refoulement. The book concludes by identifying current and future challenges in the relationship between IDPs and refugees, illustrating the overall impact and importance of the findings of the research, and setting out questions for future research.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. The Relationship between Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees

3. Legal and Institutional Protection of Internally Displaced Persons

4. Internal Displacement and the Internal Protection Alternative

5. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees' Involvement with Internally Displaced Persons: Undermining International Refugee Law?

6. Article 1D of the 1951 Refugee Convention and Internally Displaced Person

7. Conclusion

Bibliography

Bríd NÍ GHRÁINNE, Internally Displaced Persons and International Refugee Law, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022 (240 pp.)