Mr. Piper said that the current figure of 76 million people globally represents people with “losing their homes, livelihoods, communities and in some cases, their legal identitiesbecause of war, disasters such as earthquakes, floods and other weather-related disasters.”
Internally displaced persons (IDPs), unlike refugees, have not crossed international borders. While some people returned home relatively quickly, tens of millions were stuck in long-term displacement for five to 10 years or longer.
War and disaster
This elongated displacement is often the result of conflict and war. Meanwhile, millions of other people were displaced due to natural disaster as floods, storms, earthquakes and wildfires ravage countries around the world.
The most recent figures are collected by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). revealed that 68.3 million people remain internally displaced due to conflict and violence. There are an estimated 9.1 million people displaced in Sudan, the largest number of internally displaced people ever reported.
This is followed by Syria (7.2 million) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (6.7 million).
In war-torn Gaza, more than eight out of every 10 people are displaced, amounting to 1.9 million civilians. Haiti has also experienced record levels of displacement, with 600,000 people forced to leave their homes, double the number last year.
Meanwhile, civil conflict in Myanmar has left the vast majority of the three million IDPs there without suitable housing and without access to food and water, according to independent United Nations experts Paula Betancur.
Human rights violations lead to displacement
Handle Eastern Human Rights Association in Geneva on Friday, Ms. Betancur also cited a lack of accountability for human rights violations as the main cause of displacement, and called for Eastern Human Rights Associationof Member States acknowledges the “individual stories of loss, resilience and hope” behind record numbers of displaced people.
Need a long term solution
While UN humanitarian groups helped up to 50 million IDPs last year, Mr Piper called for more to be done to create sustainable solutions.
Action program of the Secretary-General on internal displacement aims to break this pattern of long-term displacement and create lasting solutions, better prevent emerging displacement crises and ensure those facing displacement receive protection effective protection and support.
The agenda sets out 31 specific commitments, which 22 different UN agencies have signed up to.
Mr. Piper also called on Member States to create an intergovernmental forum to address the issue in a more cross-cutting way rather than relying too heavily on the work of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
