Internal Displacement, Conflict and Protection

Internal displacement due to armed conflict is a global phenomenon in today’s world. This session introduces you to key figures on the scale of internal displacement globally, as well as current trends in the drivers of internal displacement and its effects on those displaced.

Since the 1990s, the fundamentals of an international system for responding to the protection and assistance needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs) have become increasingly established. This session introduces you to debates around the emergence of IDPs as a global category of concern. This session also outlines the main features of the framework for IDP protection at global, regional and national levels, as well as the roles of the main institutional actors at the international level in responding to internal displacement.

Last week, you studied law and policy frameworks on IDP ‘protection’ – but, in situations of conflict, what does that mean in practice? This session will examine not only the main elements of the term ‘protection’ in conflict contexts but also the practical challenges and responses to attempting to provide protection to IDPs during conflict. This week will also ask you to think about protection as a state that is not only provided by others but which also be developed through the agency of IDP communities that have their own mechanisms for self-protection in conflict contexts.

This session analyses ‘durable solutions’ to internal displacement. This concept describes three processes through which IDPs overcome the vulnerability imposed by displacement and retake control of their lives. The session will explore the conceptual content of such solutions. It will also show that, in practice, the pursuit of durable solutions engages not only humanitarian concerns but also long-term processes of development. This week will also assess the specific challenges of achieving durable solutions in light of the growing number of urban IDPs who seek to re-establish themselves in cities and other urban contexts.

This session introduces you to the role of identity and social status in shaping women and men’s experiences of displacement as well as responses to displacement. It will give you a better understanding of the social impact of displacement on women and men at the individual, familial and community level. This session also asks you to think about how gender and other social markers can influence experiences of displacement.

This session explores the lived experience of internal displacement and looks at how IDP narratives are used in creative and advocacy contexts. The sources for this session highlight some of the key issues faced by IDPs – such as building/rebuilding homes, access to education, relationships with host communities – and provide a showcase of the varying ways IDPs give creative expression to their experiences. This week also asks you to consider how IDP testimony can elevate issues of internal displacement in the public sphere.