Victims of Forced Evictions and International Protection

The study examines the status of local communities that are victims of forced evictions by large-scale development projects, including mining projects. It considers that these people, when abandoned by the state which has the primary obligation to protect them, receive almost no support or facilitation from the international community, particularly the United Nations and its agencies, despite the fact that under international law they have the same status as internally displaced persons as those displaced by conflict or natural disasters. This study underlines the fact that all instruments are there to ensure that this category of persons benefits from international support when the state has been unable to fulfil its obligation to protect in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons.