The Concept of Internal Displacement and the Case for Internally Displaced Persons as a Category of Concern

At a time when the IDP issue is a major subject of international discussion, conceptual clarity is essential. Erin Mooney, the Deputy Director of the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, in the lead article of the Refugee Survey Quarterly [24:3 (2005), 9-26], "The Concept of Internal displacement and the Case for Internally Displaced Persons as a Category of Concern," analyzes the different meanings connoted by the term internally displaced person (IDP). She also counters the argument that IDPs should not be a group of particular focus by putting forth a case for IDPs as a category of concern based on indicators of need and vulnerability.