Durable Solutions for IDPs: Normative Anchors in International Human Rights Law

This paper explores the scope, content and nature of the normative basis for IDP solutions in international human rights law.

Published on June 27, 2023

Deborah Casalin | idrp, IDPs, Solutions, Law/Policy

South Sudan. 21 IDPs return to Bentiu hometown. 2020 © UNMISS: Isaac Billy

The traditional durable solutions of return, resettlement or local integration – originating in refugee policy, and more recently transposed to internal displacement situations – have long been viewed as standard reference points for resolving displacement. However, the normative basis for durable solutions for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in international law remains under-examined and unclear in many respects, especially regarding the scope and status of relevant rights and obligations and identification of duty-bearers. This provides a relatively weak footing for the legality/normativity of a human rights-based approach to durable solutions, which has been asserted as offering the fairest and most sustainable results.

International legal norms underlying durable solutions for IDPs has mainly been articulated and developed through soft law and regional treaties. Legal research around these instruments has largely focused on their origins, domestication and implementation, while (sparse) research on the normative underpinnings of durable solutions for IDPs has mostly zoomed in on discrete issues around specific solutions, particularly in conflict situations. While research on durable solutions from the field of international refugee law may offer parallels, differences in underlying state responsibilities may complicate extension of its conclusions by analogy.

This paper therefore aims to explore the scope, content and nature of the normative basis for IDP solutions in the perspective of a human rights-based approach via mapping and analysis of primary and secondary doctrinal sources in international human rights law – also drawing on the author’s research on reparation for displacement, and with an emphasis on the contributions of international and regional (quasi-)judicial human rights mechanisms. This analysis will allow for delineation of a number of future research questions on rights and responsibilities in resolving displacement. It may also contribute to discussions on the need for an IDP treaty (and its scope), as well as the development of a distinct body of IDP law.

KEYWORDS: Internal displacement; IDPs; durable solutions; international law; human rights

Dr Deborah Casalin is Principal Research Fellow at the University of Antwerp Faculty of Law – Law and Development Research Group, where she is examining durable solutions for IDPs from a legal perspective. Her doctoral research, defended in 2022 at the same faculty, explores the role of international (quasi-)judicial human rights bodies in ensuring reparation for arbitrary displacement. She is a research affiliate of the RLI Internal Displacement Research Programme.

Download RID Working Paper No. 37

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