Thank you.

Dear Chairperson and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to brief you today on the critical issue of internal displacement. I will do my intervention in English, but I will be glad, during the Q and A session, to answer in French or English.

I represent the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, or IDMC, a Geneva-based organization established in 1998 as part of the Norwegian Refugee Council, or NRC. The NRC is one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations, dedicated to assisting people forced to flee their homes.

For 25 years, IDMC has provided the international community with data and analysis on internal displacement caused by conflict, violence and disasters. We monitor internal displacement in over 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to highlight the plight of internally displaced persons, or IDPs, who are often overlooked, and to inform policy-making and action with reliable data.

What does our data tell us about the scale of internal displacement? As of the end of 2023, there were 75.9 million IDPs globally, a record high. This figure includes 68.3 million people displaced by conflict and violence and 7.7 million displaced by disasters.

In addition to tracking IDP numbers, we monitor displacements or movements, which count instances of displacement within a given year and not individuals, as one person can be displaced multiple times within one year. In 2023, disasters caused 26.4 million displacements in almost 150 countries and territories, while conflict and violence triggered 20.5 million displacements in 45 countries and territories.

New escalations of conflict, such as in Sudan and Palestine, forced millions to flee in 2023, adding to the populations already displaced for a long time in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia and Syria. Earthquakes, storms, floods, wildfires and drought displaced millions more last year.

Although IDMC figures treat conflict and disasters as distinct triggers, the reality is that in many countries these factors overlap, contributing to prolonged and repeated displacement. Our final figures for 2024 are not available yet, but the trends that led to record levels of IDPs in 2023 continued in 2024.

The hardships faced by IDPs are severe. These include loss of shelter, safety and livelihood, as well as increased exposure to disease. Mental health is also an important concern. Women and girls are often disproportionately affected. The gaps in disaggregated data per sex contribute to blanket approaches to programming that tend to treat IDPs as a single homogeneous group that experiences displacement in the same way, but a person's gender inevitably shapes their experience of internal displacement, the risks they face and their ability to access appropriate support.

There are signs of progress in addressing internal displacement. In Bangladesh and India, for instance, where cyclone Remal displaced 1.6 million people in May of this year, early warning systems and community-based disaster management helped mitigate the impacts. In Bangladesh, nearly 75% of displacements were actually pre-emptive evacuations, demonstrating the life-saving potential of disaster risk management and anticipatory action. In Iraq, millions of IDPs have also found a durable solution in the past few years.

Despite such efforts, the overall trend remains alarming. With the growing impacts of climate change and the multiplication of humanitarian crises, and in the absence of durable solutions, the number of IDPs is likely to rise further.

The guiding principles on internal displacement affirm that national governments bear the primary responsibility for addressing internal displacement. With strong government leadership, international support and a commitment to listening to IDPs, we can help them achieve durable solutions and break the cycle of protracted displacement.

Internal displacement is a human rights and humanitarian issue, but it can’t be only. In 2019, at the request of 57 member states, including Canada, the UN Secretary-General established a high-level panel on internal displacement, which issued a seminal report that led to the adoption of the action agenda on internal displacement.

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