ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the issue of internal displacement within the international regime. The concept of international human rights has sought to revolutionise the discipline of international law since 1945. The internationalization of human rights and the identification of a new constitutive human rights-based conception of popular sovereignty has made an anachronism of the traditional views of inviolable state sovereignty. It is the duty of the state to protect the rights of its citizens, in a situation of internal displacement, the state may itself be the persecutor or may be unwilling to protect or unable to do so, for instance in a case where it has lost territorial control during an armed conflict. International human rights law and humanitarian law are considered the principal sources of protection for the internally displaced persons. 'Enforcement involves assertive action of the international community to override traditional prerogatives of sovereignty'.
