Persona non Grata

Imagine waking up one fine morning and realising the place you called "your home" is no longer yours, or worse being unwelcome in your own place! This is when the phrase "Persona non Grata" meaning “an unwelcomed person" comes into being. These scenarios become even more horrifying when you are forcefully uprooted from your own place and now completely unwanted in your native country.

Who am I talking about?

I am talking about Internally Displaced Persons.

A United Nations report, "Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement" defines the Internally Displaced persons as:

"Persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to 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."

According to the Internal Displaced Monitoring Centre (IDMC), at the end of 2019, there were about 45.7 million (IDP’s).

Are IDPs and Refugees same?

You might be linking the IDPs with refugees but unfortunately you are wrong although both have fled their homes to survive, refugees are people who have crossed boarders in order to find shelter whereas IDP's have managed to find shelter within their own country. But Unlike refugees, internally displaced people do not have a special status in international law with rights specific to their situation. Even though they face the same conditions as that of refugees, the only difference is that they suffer in their own country.

So, what problems do I face if I am an Internally Displaced Person?

Imagine having to leave your home and settle elsewhere without any proper identity proof. You get no job; no permanent shelter hence you get trapped into the vicious cycle of poverty. There remains an unending high risk of physical attack, sexual assault and abduction. Children have to drop out from schools and any kind of medical care facility is denied. The majority of internally displaced persons are women and children who are especially at risk of abuse of their basic rights. Furthermore, IDP's have access to no legal rights and this worsens the situation even more.

The Rights and Privileges that IDPs are entitled to.

The Internally Displaced Persons don’t enjoy any special privileges or facilities nor they are given any special recognitions like refugees. They are entitled to enjoy the same rights and freedoms under international and national laws as do other people in their country.

Despite the absence of a specific international legal framework, IDPs are protected by International Human Rights Law and domestic law at all times, and in armed conflict, benefit from the protections that any civilian is entitled to under International Humanitarian Law. This is the basis for the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which, without creating new legal obligations, identify the clear and existing responsibilities of sovereign states to respond to the needs of IDPs.

Building on these Guiding Principles, the African Union convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa was passed in 2012, affording legal protection for IDPs at the regional level. Several countries, like Kenya or Colombia, have also developed domestic laws and policies based on the Guiding Principles, which provide for the assistance and protection of IDPs. However, global attention to the plight of IDPs has been wanting, in part because it is perceived to be an internal issue to be dealt with by sovereign states.