A Pressing Humanitarian and Development Issue: Reflections on Internal Displacement and Resettlement
Author(s)
Muggah, Robert
Abstract
This article restricts its lens to development and conflict-induced displacement – two especially pervasive forms of internal displacement. Furthermore, it focuses exclusively on those populations who do not cross an internally recognized state border and are therefore not classified as “refugees”, with all the attendant rights to international legal protection and assistance that label confers. In keeping with traditional notions of sovereignty, the international legal and institutional regime created to protect refugees did not include internally displaced people because they were seen as falling under domestic jurisdiction of the states concerned.
