Open AccessTRAPPED BY SOVEREIGNTY
Author(s) -
Schimmel Noam
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
world affairs
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.159
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1940-1582
pISSN - 0043-8200
DOI - 10.1177/00438200221104498
Subject(s) - internally displaced person , refugee , human rights , international law , refugee law , political science , international humanitarian law , law , international human rights law , sovereignty , public international law , vulnerability (computing) , law and economics , sociology , computer security , politics , computer science
This article examines the legal contours of the international law regime as it relates to internally displaced people (IDPs) and assesses it critically. It analyzes the structural legal and humanitarian injustices from which IDPs suffer as a result of often arbitrary distinctions between them and refugees in international refugee law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. It explores how IDPs do not have the same explicit, dedicated legal protections in international law as refugees who have fled their countries of origin and crossed an international border. It argues that precisely because IDPs lack international legal protections, their rights and needs are often overlooked and met with indifference and lack of sufficient humanitarian response from the United Nations, its agencies and member states, and global humanitarian NGOs. It discusses efforts to recognize a specific set of international legal rights for IDPs, why they have been stymied for several decades, and the practical consequences in terms of human rights deferred and denied and human welfare undermined for IDPs and their increasing vulnerability and disadvantage. Finally, it presents ways of improving respect for and fulfillment of the human rights of IDPs .