Expert Statement on Internally Displaced Persons
A group of experts met at Georgetown University on June 9, 2016 to discuss progress since August 2015 in improving responses to the situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The group gathered as the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre disclosed its latest data on the number of IDPs worldwide. At the end of 2015, the cumulative number of people internally displaced by conflict was 40.8 million (the highest number of internal displacement ever recorded). These figures underscore the need to increase the protection of IDPs in two principal regards: gaining access to IDPs in acute crises, such as Syria, in order to provide effective protection; and finding solutions for IDPs in the many protracted situations of displacement that have already lasted for decades.