X. Who are included in the statistics? Refugees include individuals recognized under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees; its 1967 Protocol; the 1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa; those recognized in accordance with the UNHCR Statute; individuals granted complementary forms of protection;(36) or, those enjoying temporary protection. (37) This category also includes people in a refugee-like situation. (38) Asylum-seekers are individuals who have sought international protection and whose claims for refugee status have not yet been determined. Those covered in this report refer to claimants whose individual applications were pending at the end of 2009, irrespective of when they may have been lodged. 36 Complementary protection refers to protection provided under national or regional law in countries which do not grant 1951 Convention refugee status to people who are in need of international protection against serious, but indiscriminate risks. 37 Temporary protection refers to arrangements developed by States to offer protection of a temporary nature to people arriving from situations of conflict or generalized violence without the necessity for formal or individual status determination. This usually applies to situations of largescale influx. 38 The term is descriptive in nature and includes groups of people who are outside their country or territory of origin and who face protection risks similar to refugees, but for whom refugee status has, for practical or other reasons, not been ascertained. Internally displaced persons are people or groups of individuals who have been forced to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of, or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights, or natural- or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an international border. (39) For purposes of UNHCR’s statistics, this population only includes conflict-generated IDPs to whom the Office extends protection and/or assistance. The IDP population also includes people in an IDPlike situation. (40) Returned refugees (returnees) refer to refugees who have returned voluntarily to their country of origin or habitual residence. For the purposes of this report, only refugees who returned between January and December 2009 are included. However, in practice, operations may assist returnees for longer periods. 39 See: Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, Addendum to the Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General, Francis M. Deng, submitted pursuant to Commission (on Human Rights) Resolution 1997/39, United Nations, E/CN.4/1998/53/Add2 (1998). 40 The term is descriptive in nature and includes groups of people who are inside their country of nationality or habitual residence and who face protection risks similar to IDPs but who, for practical or other reasons, could not be reported as such. Returned IDPs refer to those IDPs who were beneficiaries of UNHCR’s protection and assistance activities and who returned to their areas of origin or habitual residence between January and December 2009. However, in practice, operations may assist IDP returnees for longer periods. Stateless persons are individuals not considered as citizens of any State under national laws. UNHCR statistics also include de facto stateless persons and persons with undertermined nationality. UNHCR has been given a global mandate by the United Nations General Assembly to contribute to the prevention and reduction of statelessness and the protection of stateless persons. UNHCR’s Executive Committee has requested the Office to report regularly on the magnitude of the phenomenon. The Office also has specific functions under Article 11 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness to receive claims from persons who may benefit from the safeguards contained in that Convention and to assist them and the States concerned to resolve those claims. Other groups or people of concern refer to individuals who do not necessarily fall directly into any of the groups above but to whom UNHCR has extended its protection and/or assistance services, based on humanitarian or other special ground. 2009 Global Trends 23