Preventing Internal Displacement when Disasters and Armed Conflict Cross Paths: Challenges and opportunities

This briefing paper addresses the challenge of prevention of internal displacement in contexts where war (or generalized violence) and disasters occur simultaneously

Published on October 21, 2020

Beatriz Eugenia Sánchez-Mojica | idrp, Disaster, Conflict, Violence, Climate, Law/Policy

Internal displacement has multiple causes. It is generally acknowledged that it can be the outcome of armed conflict or generalized violence. It is also accepted that disasters, both natural and man-made, can drive displacement. A scenario that is far more complex – and which has hardly been studied – arises when war (or generalized violence) and disasters occur simultaneously. This briefing paper addresses the challenge of prevention in this context.

To do so, it begins by presenting the scenarios where the conjunction of these two factors occurs; secondly, it analyzes how existing prevention and resilience-building mechanisms complement one another, despite belonging to three different legal regimes; thirdly, it introduces certain mechanisms and best practices that are currently being implemented to prevent multi-cause internal displacement and finally, it draws some brief conclusions.

The briefing was presented to the UNSG High Level Panel on Internal Displacement in Work-stream 2 (Prevention).

Dr Beatriz Eugenia Sánchez-Mojica is an Independent researcher, Colombia.

Download the Briefing Paper

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