68. While displacement due to development is commonly associated with major projects, such as dams, numerous activities cause displacement annually, including mining and extractive industries, logging, pipelines, national parks and conservation projects, port or military installations, sports projects and events, industrial plants and urbanization and infrastructure projects. Small-scale development projects can be just as damaging as larger-scale projects and are often harder to identify and monitor. While some projects meet international standards of consultation prior to displacement and compensation, resettlement and rehabilitation when displacement takes place, many fail to do so. Those affected are often poor, belong to marginalized or indigenous groups and lack political representation or an equal voice in decision-making.

69. Under Principle 6 of the General Guiding Principles, the prohibition of arbitrary displacement includes displacement caused by “cases of large-scale development projects, which are not justified by compelling and overriding public interests”. As in all cases of international human rights law, such justification would be subject to proportionality and a pressing social need. In addition, under Principle 9 of the General Guiding Principles, there is a particular international obligation for States to protect against the displacement of indigenous peoples, minorities, peasants, pastoralists and other groups with a special dependency on and attachment to their lands.

70. The Kampala Convention calls upon States Parties to “endeavour to protect communities with special attachment to, and dependency, on land due to their particular culture and spiritual values from being displaced from such lands, except for compelling and overriding public interests”. It requires States to “ensure the accountability of non-State actors concerned, including multinational companies and private military or security companies, for acts of arbitrary displacement or complicity in such acts” and to “ensure the accountability of non-State actors involved in the exploration and exploitation of economic and natural resources leading to displacement”. International standards relating to the operations of business enterprises, including the 2011 Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, require States and businesses to comply with all applicable laws and to respect human rights.

74. The 2007 Basic principles and guidelines on development-based evictions and displacement23 provide valuable guidance in addressing the human rights implications of development-linked evictions and related displacement. They provide practical guidance to States on measures and procedures to be taken in order to ensure that development-based evictions are not undertaken in contravention of existing international human rights standards and do not thus constitute “forced evictions”. The guidelines also focus on effective remedies for those whose human rights have been violated, should prevention measures fail. Independent human rights and environmental impact assessments of development and business activities likely to cause displacement should be conducted at the earliest opportunity, with their findings informing a legal project approval process
and resettlement and rehabilitation programmes.

75. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can give new impetus to attempts to ensure that development is conducted responsibly and takes into account the impact on those displaced. It requires that the development activities are implemented in a manner that is consistent with the rights and obligations of States under international law, including human rights law and standards. It is important that this new global development agenda is not interpreted as giving States a green light to pursue development without due consideration to human rights and the costs to those who own or occupy the lands on which development projects may take place. The pledge by States to “leave no one behind”, including internally displaced persons, also requires that those who are displaced by development projects and other triggers benefit from and are the target of development programmes.

3. Recognizing the vulnerability of disadvantaged and marginalized groups to internal displacement

76. In some situations, internal displacement disproportionately affects certain communities that, due to their characteristics, geographical location, poverty, discrimination or other unique circumstances, make them particularly vulnerable to internal displacement. Such groups may include indigenous peoples and ethnic, religious or other minorities, who are frequently numerically few relative to majority communities, among the poorest, and who may experience different forms of marginalization and commonly lack representation in political or other State bodies. In some cases they may face long-standing discrimination and violence targeted against them. Such population groups are often overrepresented in internally displaced person populations.

77. These and other factors may make certain marginalized communities vulnerable to violent displacement in situations of conflict and intercommunity or interfaith tensions or result in their being poorly equipped to resist efforts to displace them from their lands due to development or business activities. Greater research and data is required globally to reveal the full impact of displacement on such communities, as well as regional trends, patterns and dynamics of displacement. In particular, this makes it necessary to disaggregate data not only by sex and age but also by diversity categories, such as ethnicity and religion, that should be determined by contextual realities. Such information, fully adhering to international standards of data protection and use, would help to predict and prevent displacement targeted against certain communities and contribute to much needed displacement risk assessment and early warning mechanisms.

80. The Special Rapporteur has been struck by the vulnerability of indigenous peoples to internal displacement, including during his official visit to the Philippines, following which he highlighted the impact
of displacement or threatened displacement on them. Indigenous peoples are severely affected by displacement given their ties to ancestral lands and may have more challenges in adopting coping mechanism
for survival when displaced. The protection of the rights of indigenous peoples displaced or threatened by displacement must be strengthened in law and practice. Legal provisions on land rights and the rights of
indigenous peoples should be fully implemented and specific provisions on the rights of indigenous peoples should be included in laws on internally displaced persons where appropriate.

Conclusions and recommendations

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99. National authorities should collect and share data on all causes of displacement in their country, including generalized and criminal violence and hate-based crimes, development and business activities. Equality and anti-discrimination laws and legal protection of minorities, indigenous peoples and other potentially vulnerable groups should be in place and include provisions relating to the prohibition of unlawful displacement.

103. Recognition of internally displaced persons as holders of civil and political rights and economic and social rights is crucial and requires human rights-based approaches. As such, all States must recognize, respect and protect the fundamental rights of such persons, including to be consulted, informed and to participate and exercise free choice in decisions affecting them, including decisions on whether to return to their places of origin or to choose to settle and integrate elsewhere.