People's Stories Peace

View previous stories


A record 33.3 million now displaced by war worldwide
by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
Norwegian Refugee Council
 
33.3 million people were internally displaced at the end of 2013 due to conflict and violence according to the Global Overview 2014 published by NRCs Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).. This equates to a staggering increase of 4.5 million from 2012, signalling a record high for the second year running.
 
The report, which covers internal displacement in 2013 highlights that a full 63% of the record breaking 33.3 million internally displaced people (IDPs) reported worldwide, come from just five countries: Syria, Colombia, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan. Including figures for Nigeria for the first time, the report documents that an astounding, 3.3 million Nigerians have been displaced by conflict.
 
“This record number of people forced to flee inside their own countries confirms a disturbing upward trend of internal displacement since IDMC first began monitoring and analysing displacement back in the late 90s,” says Jan Egeland, the Secretary General of NRC.
 
“The dramatic increase in forced displacement in 2013 and the fact that the average amount of time people worldwide are living in displacement is now a staggering 17 years, all suggest that something is going terribly wrong in how we are responding and dealing with this issue,” says Egeland.
 
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres added: “We should all be concerned about these numbers and the continuing upwards trend. We have a shared responsibility to act to end this massive suffering. Immediate protection and assistance for the internally displaced is a humanitarian imperative.”
 
By the end of 2013, 8.2 million people were newly displaced, an increase of 1.6 million compared to the year before. A shocking 43% of all the people newly displaced in 2013 were in Syria.
 
“The IDMC report reveals a frightening reality of life inside Syria, now the largest internal displacement crisis in the world,” says Egeland. “Not only do armed groups control the areas where internal displacement camps are located, these camps are badly managed, provide inadequate shelter, sanitation and limited aid delivery.”
 
Further to this, the IDMC report reveals how large concentrations of IDPs have been particularly targeted by artillery bombardments and airstrikes.
 
With 9,500 people a day (approximately one family every 60 seconds) being displaced inside Syria, the country remains the largest and fastest evolving displacement crisis in the world.
 
The three countries experiencing the worst levels of new displacement - Syria, the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - together accounted for 67% of the 8.2 million people newly displaced in the year.
 
“That these three countries appear top of the IDMC list reveals an alarming reality,” said Alfredo Zamudio, Director of IDMC. “They account not only for those fleeing from relatively new crises, as in Syria and CAR, but are also reflective of the horrendous situations still faced by innocent people stuck in the midst protracted conflict, such as the DRC which has suffered persistent turmoil dating back to the mid 90’s.”
 
Egeland continues: “These trends do not bode well for the future – we have to sit up, listen up and act up by working more closely together to end this misery for millions; humanitarians alone cannot make this happen.”
 
“Global internal displacement is everyone’s problem, from politicians to private companies, development actors and lawyers – we all have a role to play,” said Egeland.
 
* The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) is a world leader in the monitoring and analysis of the causes, effects and responses to internal displacement. Through its monitoring and analysis of people internally displaced by conflict, generalised violence, human rights violations, and natural or human-made disasters, IDMC raises awareness and advocates for respect of the rights of at-risk and uprooted peoples. IDMC is part of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
 
http://www.internal-displacement.org/ http://www.brookings.edu/about/projects/idp


Visit the related web page
 


Obstruction of humanitarian support for besieged Syrians is inhuman
by UN Office for Human Rights, agencies
Syria
 
22 August 2014
 
More than 191,000 people killed in Syria with ‘no end in sight’ – UN
 
The number of people killed in Syria is double the number documented a year ago, the United Nations human rights chief today announced, criticizing the international community for its failure to stop the “killers, destroyers and torturers” that have torn the country apart.
 
In a third report on Syria carried out on behalf of the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), data specialists identified 191,369 people killed between March 2011 and the end of April 2014.
 
“Tragically, it is probably an underestimate of the real total number of people killed during the first three years of this murderous conflict,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement.
 
The figure was obtained by cross-checking a combined list of 318,910 reported killings, fully identified by the name of the victim, as well as the date and location of the death. According to Ms. Pillay’s office, any reported killing that did not include at least these three elements was excluded.
 
The list was compiled using datasets from five different sources, three of which have reported killings throughout the whole three-year period, and two of which – including the Government of Syria – cover only part of the period.
 
Records of reported killings were compared in order to identify duplicates, resulting in the final figure of 191,369 unique records of conflict-related deaths as of 30 April 2014.
 
Nearly 52,000 other reporter killings did not contain sufficient information to be counted, according to the study. The authors added that there is a “strong likelihood” that a significant number of killings may not have been reported at all.
 
The majority of the victims documented were men, with around 9.3 per cent women. In addition, the list includes 8,803 minors, including 2,165 children under the age of ten.
 
Ms. Pillay warned that with numerous other armed conflicts, the crisis in Syria “has dropped off the international radar.”
 
She said it was “scandalous” that the predicament of so many people is no longer attracting attention, and allowed to continue with no end in sight, affecting neighbouring Iraq and Lebanon.
 
“The killers, destroyers and torturers in Syria have been empowered and emboldened by the international paralysis,” the High Commissioner said.
 
In a similar message she delivered to the Security Council yesterday, Ms. Pillay castigated the 15-Member body for failing to take action to stop the violence, such as by referring the case of Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
 
She also called on Governments take serious measures to halt the fighting and deter the crimes, and above all “stop fuelling this monumental, and wholly avoidable, human catastrophe” by providing weapons and other military supplies.
 
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/SyriaBrutalWarThreatensInternationalPeaceAndSecurity.aspx http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48571#.U_6GwWP_J30
 
23 July, 2014
 
Syria has reportedly seen the deadliest 48-hour period of its three-year civil war. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says more than 700 people were killed on Thursday and Friday, more than those killed in the chemical attack on Ghouta nearly one year ago. Most of last week’s dead were killed in heavy clashes between government forces and rebel fighters at the Shaar gas field in central Syria.
 
The Observatory puts the overall death toll since March 2011 at 170,000, more than one-third civilians. More than 2.8 million people have been displaced.
 
26 June, 2014
 
Obstruction of Humanitarian Support for Besieged Syrians ‘Inhuman’, Under-Secretary-General tells Security Council.
 
With the lives of the Syrian people “hanging in the balance”, there were no words to describe the frustration of aid workers forced to spend endless hours seeking permission to deliver assistance, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council today.
 
Valerie Amos, in her fourth briefing on the situation, told the 15-member body that resolution 2139 (2014), demanding access for aid workers, was “clear and unequivocal” for the 10.8 million people who depended on humanitarian support. However, as noted in the Secretary-General’s report on the resolution’s implementation (document S/2014/427), needs were outpacing efforts to access the 4.7 million people in hard-to-reach areas, a number that had increased by 1.2 million since the adoption of the resolution.
 
The level of obstruction was “inhuman and goes against the basic commitment to human dignity and rights” as set forth in the United Nations Charter, she stated. Since her last briefing, 241,000 people continued to live under siege conditions, unable to leave their communities. Only 2,467 people, or 1 per cent of them, had received much-needed food assistance.
 
Furthermore, countless hours had been spent negotiating and facilitating convoy movements in compliance with complicated and onerous administrative procedures. Yet, despite all those efforts and four years into the war, she pointed out that “we are unable to sustainably reach nearly half of those identified as being in direct need.”
 
The Government, she continued, had introduced new procedures for assistance delivery in hard-to-reach locations through United Nations hubs. Yet, those required three levels of approval, undermining previous agreements, resulting in two successive months of decline in aid deliveries.
 
Despite repeated calls for the free passage of all medicines and surgical equipment in aid convoys, she went on, certain items continued to be excluded or removed, depriving tens of thousands of people each month of their basic right to live-saving medical assistance. That deliberate denial of essential medicine and medical equipment “undermines the very basis of humanitarian action”, she emphasized. The ability of international non-governmental organizations to operate in the country also remained severely constrained owing to bureaucratic and operational impediments.
 
“There can be no justification for such action; deliberately obstructing humanitarian access and depriving civilians of access to services essential to their survival was unlawful and inhumane,” she declared. She recalled telling the Council in 2011 that 1 million Syrians needed humanitarian assistance; that figure now stood at 10.8 million.
 
She also noted that many staff of United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations had been killed, injured, detained or taken hostage in the line of duty, adding that nearly 60 aid workers had lost their lives.
 
Although everyone had hoped the resolution’s adoption would significantly improve the situation, she regretted to inform the Council that the violence and attacks on civilians by all parties to the conflict and human rights abuses continued unabated, with devastating consequences.
 
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2014/sc11456.doc.htm
 
16 May 2014
 
“Interference with water supplies even in the context of an ongoing conflict is entirely unacceptable,” warned today two UN experts on the rights to water and sanitation, and to health, expressing concern that “large numbers of residents of the city of Aleppo have been forced to use non-potable water, making many ill.”
 
“Depriving people of their right to access safe water, not only denies them a basic and fundamental human right, but also an essential element to support life and health,” stressed the experts. They added that “if deliberate, the targeting of a civilian population to deprive it of essential supplies such as water is a matter of very serious concern, and a clear breach of both international humanitarian and human rights law which binds all parties.”
 
Reportedly, the city of Aleppo has had intermittent access to water from the beginning of May 2014, with a total cut in supply on 10 May resulting in many, perhaps a million people left without access to safe water and sanitation. This affected homes, hospitals and medical centres. The cuts appeared to come about as a result of deliberate interference with the water supply, with conflicting allegations suggesting that some armed opposition groups and the Government of Syria have both been responsible at different times and to differing degrees.
 
“All parties to the conflict must take immediate steps to ensure that the water supply in Aleppo is permanently restored, and prevent any further interference with access to potable water, and other vital supplies. Relevant UN bodies and concerned States with influence over those parties must make that clear to them,” the experts said.
 
“Blatant disregard for human rights and humanitarian law cannot be justified by conflict,” they stressed.
 
(*) Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Anand Grover Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque.
 
17 May 2014
 
Following reports that armed groups cut water supplies in Syria"s flashpoint town of Aleppo, leaving at least 2.5 million people with no access to safe water for drinking and sanitation for days, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that such deliberate targeting of civilians is a “clear breach” of international law.
 
A statement issued yesterday evening by a UN spokesperson in New York said Mr. Ban is concerned by reports that water supplies in the city of Aleppo were deliberately cut off by armed groups for eight days.
 
“The Secretary-General notes that preventing people"s access to safe water is a denial of a fundamental human right,” said the statement, adding that deliberate targeting of civilians and depriving them of essential supplies is a clear breach of international humanitarian and human rights law.
 
While water supplies have since been restored, the Secretary-General, according to the statement, urged all parties to ensure that the water supply in Aleppo - and everywhere in Syria - is permanently restored and to refrain from targeting civilian facilities and infrastructure.
 
“He asks Member States and those with influence over all the parties to the conflict to remind them of their obligations,” said the statement.
 
http://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/unlawful-air-attacks-terrorize-aleppo


Visit the related web page
 

View more stories

Submit a Story Search by keyword and country Guestbook