25 years of progress on internal displacement 1998-2023

In 1998, the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement were presented to the UN Commission on Human Rights, offering a framework comprising 30 standards to safeguard the rights of internally displaced people (IDPs). Despite numerous efforts by countries to address internal displacement in the past 25 years, the number of IDPs continues to rise, necessitating a review of progress and renewed collective action. This report highlights policies, legal frameworks, and initiatives developed over the years, showcases improvements for various countries in the IDMC Internal Displacement Index (IDI), and underscores the ongoing challenges in managing internal displacement while providing recommendations for future efforts.

The report includes selected examples of comprehensive policies and legal frameworks introduced to address internal displacement over the past two and half decades. It also highlights promising initiatives designed to prevent displacement, protect IDPs, support them in achieving durable solutions and improve the availability and quality of data on the issue. The report features highlights from IDMC's Internal Displacement Index. The results for 2023 show improvements since the last IDI assessment conducted in 2021 for Chad, Mozambique, and Nigeria, among others.