Internally Displaced Persons and Their Legal Status: The Ukrainian Context

• Author: Iryna Basova
• Pages: 113-124

113

JURIDICA INTERNATIONAL 26/2017

Iryna Basova

Postgraduate student

Department of Civil, Labour and Business Law

V.M. Koretsky Institute of State and Law

National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Internally

Displaced Persons

and Their Legal Status

The Ukrainian Context

1. Introduction

The problem of internally displaced persons not only is topical in Ukraine but also has been seen all over

the world, in various historical periods. According to research*1 cited by the United Nations High Commis-

sioner for Refugees on movements in the world in late 2014, the number of internally displaced persons was

59.5 million then, with 38.2 million of these being internally displaced persons (hereinafter also ‘IDPs’).

Among the reasons for such movements are natural and manmade disasters / ‘acts of God’, but most of

the displacement is caused by the necessity of escaping armed conf‌l icts in the country of residence. For

example, military actions in Georgia in 1992 - 1993 and military aggression of Russia in 2008 (in Abkhazia

and South Ossetia) are well-known, with the number of IDPs coming to around 257,989*2 in 1991 in Azer-

baijan (Nagorny-Karabakh) - about 789,000 people*3; roughly 210,000 people being forced to change their

place of residence in the case of Serbia (Kosovo) in 1999; about 130,000 residents*4 of Moldova leaving

their homes (Transnistria) in the 1990s; etc. The problems of internally displaced persons were addressed

in several ways in these countries, from creating the appropriate committees, departments, and individual

 UNHCR report ‘Global Trends Forced Displacement in ’, p. . Available at http://www.unhcr.org/e.html

(most recently accessed on ..).

 The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees released research on intentions to implement long-term solutions,

focusing on the thoughts of internally displaced persons in Georgia, on  June . Details are available at http://www.

refworld.org.ru/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=search&docid=ec&skip=&query=%D%B%D%BD%D%

%D%%D%%D%B%D%BD%D%BD%D%B%%D%BF%D%B%D%%D%B%D%BC%D%

B%D%%D%B%D%BD%D%BD%D%B%D%B%%D%BB%D%B%D%%D%B&coi=GEO (most

recently accessed on ..). The f‌i gure comes from p.  of these materials.

 The f‌i gure comes from p.  of statistical information on the consequences of the military aggression of Armenia, provided by

the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Azerbaijan in . Available, in Azerbaijani, at http://mod.gov.az/ru/posledstviya-

voennoj-agressii-armenii-statistika-/ (most recently accessed on ..).

 O. Horelova, H. Shelar. Title of document goes here [‘The costs of the Transnistrian conf‌l ict and the benef‌i ts of its settle-

ment’]. Chisinau, Moldova: Center for Strategic Studies and Reforms , p. . Available at http://www.cisr-md.org/pdf/

Report%RUS%Master%Final%vGS.pdf (most recently accessed on ..) (in language_name).

https://doi.org/10.12697/JI.2017.26.12