page / 175 Internal Displacement and the Protection of Property Internal DIsplacement anD the protectIon of property / Walter Kaelin Internal displacement Imagine: There is a war in your country, an attack on your village or town is immi- nent and, in order to save your life, you de- cide to lee with your family to a region not yet touched by the conlict. There is little space to carry personal belongings with you and you have to leave your house, apartment, or farm behind, hoping that no one will break the carefully locked doors, enter your property, take it away, or de- stroy it. After the conlict is over and you plan to return home, you discover that your property has been destroyed, or that it was taken over by another family who with the agreement of the local authori- ties refuses to leave. This is the experience of many inter- nally displaced persons (“IDPs”) all over the world. They are persons who are forced to leave their homes, villages, or towns and ind refuge in another part of their coun- try. Unlike refugees, they do not lee to another state but ind refuge within their own country. With an estimated 25 million persons displaced within their own coun- tries by armed conlicts, the number of in- ternally displaced persons outnumbers refugees by more than two to one. Internal displacement: some facts and igures Notion: Internally displaced persons (“IDPs”) “are persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to lee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conlict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border”. 1 Facts and Figures: An estimated 25 million persons have been displaced by armed con- lict in more than 40 countries. In Africa, the number of IDPs reaches 13.2 million, in Cen- tral and South America 3.7 million, in Asia