Rights and Development-Induced Displacement: Is it a case of risk management or social protection?

Abstract

Irrespective of the regional setting, displacement of all kinds results in considerable disruption and loss of assets for both the individual and the collective, with greater likelihood of socio-economic impoverishment and reduced access to rights entitlements. Although there is evidence that displaced people face additional challenges of life in a new environment, living day to day with uncertainties around their survival, the larger proportion of these studies are concerned with physical resettlement and the livelihood restoral of people displaced as a result of conflict or large development projects (whether as refugees or internally displaced people (IDP). There has been relatively little critical reflection on how the policy framework can deliver the rights and entitlements of forced migrants, including those who should be obliged to protect them and the relevance of individual agency . This paper critically engages with current internal displacement protection policies that are based on risk management or short-term relief measures. It considers how a policy paradigm of social protection might offer a framework to minimize the loss of rights so often associated with displacement.