Chapter A new focus on pursuing the economic self-reliance of Palestinian refugees and expanding the role of host countries in service provision will have damaging consequences. Not only will these changes perpetuate the economic exploitation of Palestinian refugee communities, but they are also likely to bring about a trend of forcible integration and resettlement. This will be tantamount to exempting Israel from its obligations and responsibilities towards the displaced population. The search for durable solutions must be undertaken with reference to Israel if Israel is to be held accountable for its violations of international law. 3 legal instruments, but rather due to a lack of political will. Efforts to reappraise international approaches to refugee crises which focus on the drafting of additional legal frameworks should seek to galvanize states and international organizations to politically recommit themselves to the development and safeguarding of effective refugee protection regimes. 3.4. General Framework of International Protection for IDPs When safety is sought within the borders of the same country, the situation is deemed to be one of internal displacement. Similar to refugees, the situation of IDPs is often characterized by a failure on the part of the state of origin (or the state that exercises jurisdiction over them) to adequately protect them. IDPs do not have a binding international instrument or body that is exclusively devoted to their protection, nor does identification as an IDP confer specific international legal status.387 This is largely due to deference to the primacy of state sovereignty in public international law. Consequently, while the protection accorded to refugees is framed as surrogate protection, the protection of IDPs is one of complementary protection existing in parallel with national protection, unless national protection is not available.388 The protection regime of IDPs is grounded in international human rights law, international humanitarian law (in situations of armed conflict), and by norms of refugee law (when applicable). The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement provide a purely descriptive definition on IDPs: “Persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situation of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized border”.389 387 The single existing binding instrument aimed at protecting IDPs, the Kampala Convention, has only regional coverage. It has been signed by 39 African states and ratified by 22. See African Union, African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (adopted 23 October 2009, entered into force 6 December 2012) <https://au.int/en/treaties/african-union-convention-protection-and-assistance-internallydisplaced-persons-africa> accessed 3 October 2022. 388 Catherine Phuong, The International Protection of Internally Displaced Persons (Cambridge University Press 2004), 25. 389 OCHA, Guiding Principles (n 325). 85

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