Internally Displaced Persons

Even if they have fled for similar reasons as refugees (armed conflict, generalized violence, human rights violations), IDPs legally remain under the protection of their own government - even though that government might be the cause of their flight. As citizens, they retain all of their rights and protection under both human rights and international humanitarian law.
UNHCR´s original mandate does not specifically cover IDPs, but because of the agency´s expertise on displacement, it has for many years been assisting millions of them, more recently through the "cluster approach." Under this approach, UNHCR has the lead role in overseeing the protection and shelter needs of IDPs as well as coordination and management of camps. At the end of 2009, there were an estimated 27 million IDPs around the world and UNHCR was helping about 15.6 million of them in 22 countries, including the three with the largest IDP populations - Sudan, Colombia and Iraq.