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Internally Displaced People
On the Run in Their Own Land
Internally displaced people, or IDPs, are often wrongly called refugees. Unlike refugees, IDPs have not crossed an international border to find sanctuary but have remained inside their home countries. Even if they have fled for similar reasons as refugees (armed conflict, generalized violence, human rights violations), IDPs legally remain under the protection of their own government - even though that government might be the cause of their flight. As citizens, they retain all of their rights and protection under both human rights and international humanitarian law.
UNHCR´s original mandate does not specifically cover IDPs, but because of the agency´s expertise on displacement, it has for many years been assisting millions of them, more recently through the "cluster approach." Under this approach, UNHCR has the lead role in overseeing the protection and shelter needs of IDPs as well as coordination and management of camps.
At the end of 2008, there were an estimated 26 million IDPs around the world and UNHCR was helping about 14.4 million of them in 22 countries, including the three with the largest IDP populations - Sudan, Colombia and Iraq.
Millions of other civilians who have been made homeless by natural disasters are also classified as IDPs. UNHCR is only involved with this group in exceptional circumstances, such as the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005 and 2008's Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar.
Global Clusters
UNHCR's leadership role in Protection, Emergency Shelter, and Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM).
(External link)
Policy and Guiding Documents
Policy and guidance relating to UNHCR's role in humanitarian response to situations of internal displacement.
Useful Links
More useful information on IDPs.
