Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Whom do the statistics include? 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, and those enjoying temporary protection. In Latin America 15 countries have included the refugee criteria recommended by the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees. While they also recognize refugees under this regional refugee definition, no distinction is made for statistical purposes. The refugee population also includes people in refugee-like situations that includes groups of people who are outside their country or territory of origin and who face protection risks similar to those of refugees but for whom refugee status has, for practical or other reasons, not been ascertained. 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 2017, 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. For the purposes of UNHCR’s statistics, this population includes only IDPs displaced by conflict or violence and of concern to UNHCR to whom the Office extends protection or assistance. The IDP population also includes people in an IDP-like situation including groups who are inside their country of nationality or habitual residence and who face protection risks similar to those of IDPs but who, for practical or other reasons, could not be reported as such. unhcr > Global trends 2017 Returned refugees (returnees) are former refugees who have returned to their countries of origin, either spontaneously or in an organized fashion, but are yet to be fully integrated. Such returns normally would take place only under conditions of safety and dignity. For the purposes of this report, only refugees who returned between January and December 2017 are included, although in practice operations may assist returnees for longer periods. Returned IDPs refers 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 2017. In practice, however, operations may assist IDP returnees for longer periods. Individuals 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 to the identification and protection of stateless persons. UNHCR also works with populations at risk of statelessness in line with its mandate to prevent statelessness, but these population groups are not reflected in this statistical report. 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 or assistance services, based on humanitarian or other special grounds. ■ 61