(Online) Internally Displaced Persons and International Refugee Law

„Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are persons who have been forced to leave their places of residence for reasons such as armed conflict, violence, human rights violations, or natural or human-made disasters, but who have not crossed an international border. There are about 55 million IDPs in the world today, outnumbering refugees by roughly 2:1. Although IDPs and refugees have similar wants, needs and fears, IDPs have traditionally been seen as a domestic issue, and the international legal and institutional framework of IDP protection is still in its relative infancy.

This talk draws from the author's recently-published monograph, 'Internally Displaced Persons and International Refugee Law' (OUP 2022), which explores to what extent the protection of IDPs complements or conflicts with international refugee law. Three questions form the core of the talk: What is the legal and normative relationship between IDPs and refugees? To what extent is an individual's real risk of internal displacement in their country of origin relevant to the qualification and cessation of refugee status? And to what extent is the availability of IDP protection measures an alternative to asylum? The talk concludes by identifying current and future challenges in the relationship between IDPs and refugees, illustrating the overall impact and importance of the findings of the monograph, and setting out questions for future research.“

Bríd Ní Ghráinne is a Non-Resident Fellow at Centre for International Law. She studied Public International Law and the University of Oxford (DPhil) and Public International Law at Leiden University (LL.M). She is also an Associate Professor at Maynooth University, Ireland; a Senior Researcher at the Judicial Studies Institute, Masaryk University; a Senior Research Affiliate and Lecturer at the Refugee Law Initiative at the University of London; and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Reading. She regularly appears in both English and Irish-language media as a commentator in her areas of expertise and has acted as a consultant for the United Nations, the Council of Europe, Greenpeace, and Oxford Analytica. Previously, she was a Lecturer at the University of Sheffield (2014-2018) where she won two of the University’s top teaching awards. She has also worked in the Legal Division of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2010-2011) and taught at the Universities of Helsinki (2015), Cyprus (2016), Oxford (2012-2013), and Shandong University China (2015-2017). Her research interests include public international law, internally displaced persons, refugees, human rights law, and humanitarian law.

The event will be moderated by Prof. Veronika Bílková. 

The seminar will take place on Zoom, where participants may actively join the debate. The seminar will be live-streamed on our Facebook page. To participate, please register below.