Refugees and IDP voices

Refugee and IDP Voices:

Conflicts create refugees and internally displaced people (IDP) and these are some of the least listen to voices in a clash. True conflict resolution must take in to account the voices and opinions of the people it has misplaced.

Facts and Figures

A Refugee is:

"A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.” [i]

In 2009 there were roughly 15.4 million refugees in the world. 45% of the refugee population is believed to be under the age of 18. Afghanistan, Iraq, Somali and Sudan are the largest refugee producing countries.[ii] [iii]

An Internally Displaced Person is:

“Internally displaced persons are persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border.” [iv]

There are between 26 and 27 million IDP in 55 countries in the world. Colombia, Iraq, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have the largest concentration of IDP populations. Colombia and Sudan both contain roughly 5 million IDP the largest two concentrations of IDP on the planet.[v]

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[i] http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html

[ii]http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c206.html

[iii] http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c206.html

[iv] http://www.undp.org/cpr/documents/recovery/DefinitionIDPs.pdf

[v]http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpPages)/22FB1D4E2B196DAA802570BB005E787C?OpenDocument&count=1000