ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the internally displaced person (IDP) protection regime remains challenged along two dimensions. The first is how the individual norms which make up the regime are actually interpreted by states and other actors. The second dimension reinforces the issues and reflects the growth of complexity at the international level. The IDP protection regime is composed of a bundle of different norms. Within International Relations constructivist scholarship, norms are understood to be shared understandings of appropriate behavior for actors with a given identity which isolates a single strand of behavior. The intrinsic characteristics of a norm, the responsibilities it creates, and whether it is nested within a regime can all help to clarify how the norm is understood by actors. Norms are critical in order to understand how states and other international actors behave toward IDPs.
