Emerging legal challenges in international law: Internally displaced persons (IDPS) and he need for protection

Abstract

This dissertation will appreciate that internal displacement having assumed epidemic proportions is the greatest human rights and humanitarian challenge to international community after the refugee crisis experienced in the second-halve of the twentieth Century. While it will be noted that, although the problem of internal displacement is complex in nature, it will also on the other hand be argued that the suffering of IDPs is fundamentally compounded by the absence of internationally recognized legal status, the obsession with the notion of sovereignty by governments, and the apparent lack of any clear mechanism for international protection or intervention. This study will make a strong case for international protection for internally displaced persons. It will be argued that while substantial legal norms in international law can in principal be invoked in the protection of IDPS, they nonetheless fail to provide sufficient protection. In doing so, the study will analyse international human rights law with a view of determining the extent to which it meets basic protection needs of IDPs and conclude that there are inherent gaps and grey areas that merit attention. By using a case study of Sudan this study will demonstrate the gravity of internal displacement and show that the suffering experienced by IDPs is as grave or even worse than that of refugees who are protected by international law. In concluding the study will suggest measures of dealing with internal displacement and agree that although conflict primarily accounts for the largest percentage of internal displacement; there are nonetheless other factors to the problem and hence the need for a broad framework of strategies and solutions.