Many internally displaced people (IDPs) find refuge in cities. However, the scale of global urban internal displacement caused by violence, conflict, disasters and development projects is unknown. Cities struggle to accommodate IDPs since their movements are largely spontaneous, and some authorities may resist helping IDPs for fear of encouraging further influxes. Meanwhile, IDPs face displacement-specific challenges to rebuild their lives in urban settings and may be displaced again in the process due to lack of housing tenure security and violence and insecurity.

IDMC's report explores the challenges in providing sustainable housing assistance to informal urban settlers displaced by disasters. It looks at nine case studies from Asia, America and Europe.

The report identifies the difficulties faced by urban informal settlers in receiving long-term housing assistance in post-disaster situations. Informal settlers are more exposed and vulnerable to displacement and are more likely to be relocated and excluded from the provision of durable housing assistance.

Despite a longstanding recognition of the need to improve the response of actors addressing urban displacement, there is a lack of guidance on how to do this and a limited knowledge of practices that have successfully addressed the housing, tenure security and livelihood needs of urban IDPs.

IDMC was one of 44 Palestinian, Israeli, and international organizations calling on world leaders to stop Israeli plans to forcibly transfer thousands of Palestinian Bedouins out of their communities in the central part of the occupied West Bank and into a designated township.

The report analyses displacement in Coast region and identifies tensions over land tenure and poor land governance as key triggers, and obstacles to durable solutions. It provides examples of land issues underlying displacement caused by generalised violence, disasters and human rights violations, and establishes a close link between tenure insecurity and forced evictions. Disputes arise from competing land claims and incompatibility between formal and informal tenure systems.

A new report by IDMC and Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) offers the most comprehensive analysis to date on Israel's lethal enforcement of Access-Restricted Areas - (ARA) - live-fire zones imposed by the Israeli military forces on large swathes of the Gaza Strip.

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IDMC's report offers a revealing insight into the lives of those who live side-by-side with one of the most vicious and notorious armed groups in the world, the Lord’s Resistance Army.

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The total number of people internally displaced by armed conflict, generalised violence and human rights violations worldwide as of the end of 2012 was estimated to be 28.8 million. This represents an increase of 2.4 million on the previous year, and is the highest figure IDMC has ever recorded. Around 6.5 million people were newly displaced, almost twice as many as the 3.5 million during 2011.

In 2011, 14.9 million people were internally displaced throughout the world due to natural disasters, mostly related to weather events such as floods and storms. 89% of the displacement occurred in Asia.

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The National Commission on Land and Other Properties (Commission Nationale des Terres et Autres Biens or CNTB) in collaboration with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and its Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) organised a workshop on the role of the CNTB in promoting durable solutions for internally displaced people (IDPs), on 10 November 2011 at Chez André in Bujumbura.  

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n recent decades, many cities and towns around the world have seen dramatic population growth, with significant inflows from rural areas. People forcibly displaced by armed conflict, violence or natural disasters have moved to urban areas in search of greater security, better access to basic services and greater economic opportunities.

Displacement continues to rise in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. But the good news is that this year’s Global Overview shows a steady decline in IDP numbers in Africa, dating back from 2004. This positive trend gives us hope. Indeed, the African continent remains at the forefront of policy development in support of IDP rights. In 2009, the African Union adopted the Kampala Convention – the first ever instrument for the protection and assistance of IDPs to bind countries across a whole continent.