Although internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria are increasingly at the forefront of the global humanitarian agendas, there are no formal mandates by any international agency that enforces international aid. The purpose of this paper is to address the overwhelming challenges that confronts IDPs in Nigeria. This paper explains the UN agenda on IDPs in Nigeria and in so doing, makes a case on the need for a more protective legislation in Nigeria. Furthermore, this paper analyses how IDPs in Nigeria have been forced from their homes, often persecuted or under attack and constantly in desperate need for government intervention. The argument of this paper is that there is a need for clear cut policies, legal instruments and institutions to deal with pre and post-displacement situations. The major finding of the paper reveals that crisis induced displacement can hamper development in developing countries. This paper also finds that it sets back Nigerian development as it further compounds and complicates the already existing challenge of poor living standard in the regions affected. The paper recommended, among others that governments should acquire decent infrastructures for the containment of conflict and natural disasters. Adequate measures should be taken to ensure that government aids to displaced persons are diverted through corrupt practices.

The term 'natural disaster' is often used to refer to natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes or floods. However, the phrase 'natural disaster' suggests an uncritical acceptance of a deeply engrained ideological and cultural myth. At Risk questions this myth and argues that extreme natural events are not disasters until a vulnerable group of people is exposed. The updated new edition confronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters and discusses disaster not as an aberration, but as a signal failure of mainstream 'development'. Two analytical models are provided as tools for understanding vulnerability. One links remote and distant 'root causes' to 'unsafe conditions' in a 'progression of vulnerability'. The other uses the concepts of 'access' and 'livelihood' to understand why some households are more vulnerable than others. Examining key natural events and incorporating strategies to create a safer world, this revised edition is an important resource for those involved in the fields of environment and development studies.

As of the end of 2015, there were 40.8 civilians who had been internally displaced by conflicts and effects of natural disasters in various parts of the world. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are currently the largest group of persons receiving assistance from some of the main international humanitarian organisations. With the largest concentration of internally displaced persons (IDPs), the African continent has been the worst affected region. While previously IDPs have largely been neglected under international law, the first-ever continental binding treaty on internal displacement, the African Union Convention on the Protection of and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons (the Kampala Convention), entered into force on 6 December 2012. As of January 2016, 25 states have ratified the instrument while 40 states have become signatories. This book significantly contributes to the study, policy making and practice on managing internal displacement by presenting the first major systematic examination of the evolution, elements and implementation of the Kampala Convention. It explores the responsibility of the state for the protection of IDPs particularly those who are most vulnerable during armed conflicts, internal strife, natural disasters, human rights violations and other circumstances. The status of ratification of the Convention is reviewed as well as the steps currently being undertaken by governments to implement the Convention. It also analyses the contribution by human rights mechanisms, inter-governmental bodies and UN peace-keeping missions in the implementation of the Convention. The book casts the Kampala Convention in broader institutional and normative developments in Africa and beyond. It demonstrates how concepts such as ‘responsibility to protect’ and ‘sovereignty as responsibility’ have begun to make inroads; influencing some of the more progressive instruments adopted by the African Union. It also sheds light on the relationship between the Convention and some regional instruments. In assessing the effectiveness of the Kampala Convention Allehone Abebe argues that the link between the Convention and initiatives on development, human rights and governance in Africa should be fully fostered.

Despite the fact that there are up to 25 million internally displaced persons around the world, their plight is still little known. Like refugees, internally displaced persons have been forced to leave their homes because of war and human rights abuses, but they have not left their country. This has major consequences in terms of the protection available to them. This 2005 book aims to offer a clear and easily accessible overview of this important humanitarian and human rights challenge. In contrast with other books on the topic, it provides an objective evaluation of UN efforts to protect the internally displaced. It will be of interest to all those involved with the internally displaced, as well as anyone seeking to gain an overall understanding of this complex issue.

The world faces more than 60 million people displaced by armed conflict and disasters as of 2022. Climate change is set to trigger large-scale displacement in the future. Internal Displacement and the Law discusses to what extent the present law can contribute to preventing, responding to, and resolving internal displacement and protecting the rights of these internally displaced persons (IDPs). It also identifies its weaknesses and examines ways to improve action. The book's analysis reflects the realities of internal displacement and the challenges faced by displaced individuals and communities, their hosts, governments, and international actors. Assessing the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the Kampala Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, this enlightening volume investigates the relevance of international human rights and humanitarian law to the problem of displacement with an eye toward durable solutions. In line with its human rights approach, this work promotes a narrative that, based on the concept of sovereignty as responsibility, emphasizes the primary responsibility of states to address the needs of IDPs and views them as citizens with rights and agency rather than as vulnerable beneficiaries of humanitarian action. The author concludes that the body of relevant law amounts to an emerging legal regime on internal displacement whose substantive norms are largely adequate, but which faces specific institutional challenges at domestic and international levels that weaken efforts to address the plight of IDPs.

This book, the first in a series on the North East, focuses on development-induced displacement of population in the region in the post-colonial period. Despite state-sponsored development initiatives, the North East still remains highly underdeveloped and politically disturbed. Various development projects initiated by the state led to massive displacement of population within the region, which has virtually gone unnoticed. The author has made use of extensive empirical data to document this massive displacement.

Displaced people who are persecuted or neglected -- wether in Darfur in the Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, the Russian Federation, Afghanistan or elsewhere - turn to the United Nations to provide them with material aid and to protect them from armed attack, arbitrary detention, forced conscription or sexual violence. This study find that the UN's approach to protecting vulnerable populations "is still largely ad hoc and driven more by the personalities and convictions of individuals on the ground than by an institutional, system-wide agenda". It notes that staff efforts in the field are often undermined by a lack of political and financial support from headquarters and UN member states. It proposes that the United Nations make the protection of civilians and the prevention of displacement "a core part of its mandate". In their foreword to the book, Walter Kalin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights on Internally Displaced Persons, and Dennis McNamara, Director of OCHA's Internal Displacement Division, call upon the United Nations to assume "a leadership role" in advocating for the protection of the displaced. It is only through such concerted efforts that the international community can create "a more effective international system for adressing the protection and assistance needs of one of the world's most marginalized people". (Adapted from publisher's abstract).