IX. 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 Organization of African Unity (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,48 and those enjoying temporary protection.49 The refugee population also includes people in refugee-like situations.50 Asylum-seekers (with ‘pending cases’) 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 2015, irrespective of when those claims may have been lodged. Internally displaced persons are people or groups of people 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 man-made disasters, and who have not crossed an international border.51 For the purposes of UNHCR’s statistics, this population includes only conflict-generated IDPs to whom the Office extends protection and/or assistance. The IDP population also includes people in an IDP-like situation.52 Persons under UNHCR’s statelessness mandate are defined under international law as those not considered as nationals by any State under the operation of its law. In other words, they do not possess the nationality of any State. UNHCR statistics refer to people who fall under the agency’s statelessness mandate as those who are stateless according to this international definition, but data from some countries may also include people with undetermined 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. The agency also performs a specific function, under Article 11 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, in receiving claims from people who may benefit from the statelessness safeguards contained in that Convention and in assisting them and the States concerned to resolve these claims. Other groups or persons of concern refers to individuals who do not necessarily fall directly into any of these groups but to whom UNHCR has extended its protection and/or assistance services, based on humanitarian or other special grounds. Returned refugees (returnees) are former refugees who have returned to their country of origin, either spontaneously or in an organized fashion, but are yet to be fully integrated. Such returns would normally take place only under conditions of safety and dignity. For the purposes of this report, only refugees who returned between January and December 2015 are included, though in practice operations may assist returnees for longer periods. refers to those IDPs who were beneficiaries of UNHCR’s protection and assistance activities, and who returned to their area of origin or habitual residence between January and December 2015. In practice, however, operations may assist IDP returnees for longer periods. Returned IDPs 54 UNHCR Global Trends 2015 48 ‘Complementary protection’ refers to protection provided under national, regional, or international law to persons who do not qualify for protection under refugee law instruments but are in need of international protection because they are at risk of serious harm. 49 ‘Temporary protection’ refers to arrangements developed to offer protection of a temporary nature, either until the situation in the country of origin improves and allows for a safe and dignified return or until individual refugee or complementary protection status determination can be carried out. 50 This term is descriptive in nature. It includes groups of persons 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. 51 See United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Francis M. Deng, submitted pursuant to Commission resolution 1997/39: Addendum: Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, 11 February 1998. 52 This term is descriptive in nature. It includes groups of persons 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.