Protection of Internally Displaced People From Arbitrary Displacement: The Development of a New Right

This study examines the development of the right not to be arbitrar-ily displaced, which is a fundamental right for Internally Displaced Per-sons (IDPs). The study examines such development under both national and international law, especially since the launch of the Guiding Prin-ciples on Internal Displacement in 1998.

The main argument of the study is that the right not to be arbitrarily displaced has evotved to be-come a free-standing human right while contributing substantially to existing articles of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law. This right derives from existing provisions of these regimes of international law concerning forced displacement and en-hances these provisions by fılling gaps and contributing to areas that have previously not been addressed by these regimes. The study shows that this right is not merely repetitive but rather comprises a critical and innovative right that can perform a majör role tovvards protecting IDPs from arbitrary acts of displacement. A significant contribution of this right is that it addresses the pre-displacement phase, but is not limited to that, and also enhances protection from arbitrary acts during displace¬ment, if displacement is unavoidable.

The study also demonstrates that the capacity of this right to perform a critical role for IDP protection has to a large extent been made possi-ble by developments at the national law level. The empirical analysis conducted shows that certain countries have developed more ambitious and comprehensive national legal framevvorks on IDP rights, and this process has led to recognition of the right not to be arbitrarily displaced in their domestic frameworks. There is a critical number of countries that now explicitly recognise this right and even have created policy-making frameworks that promote the applicability of this right.

The study argues that this process is not the same for ali states in this cate-gory since there may be different paths tovvards the greater recognition and applicability of this right, but nevertheless these different paths ali contribute to the strengthening of understanding of states regarding their obligations towards the prevention of displacement. Despite the existence of implementation issues on this right, such impediments do not derive from the right itself but are rather linked to political problems and instability of the country concerned. The study demonstrates ali this