*Originally published in 2024 and preserved as part of our archive project.Get E-International Relations delivered to your inbox, free of charge. As you sign up, consider becoming a paid subscriber to support our work.

This article is part of the Buddhism and International Relations article series, edited by Raghav Dua.

At the end of 2022, 108.4 million people globally were displaced from their homes (UNHCR “Figures At A Glance”). More than half of displaced people today are women and 40% of displaced people are children (“Figures At A Glance”). If all displaced people were gathered to form a single country, it would be the fifteenth most populous country in the world, larger than Germany, Thailand, the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Iran. The causes of displacement are varied: conflict, human rights violations, environmental degradation, natural disasters, and state development projects all contribute to the growing reality of displacement. Because effects from climate change exacerbate each of these causes, displacement is a humanitarian challenge that will be with us for the foreseeable future.

Former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata famously stated, “There are no humanitarian solutions to humanitarian problems” (UNHCR, “Ogata Calls for Stronger Political Will”). In the face of humanitarian challenges like displacement, humanitarian protection and assistance merely provide a temporary response to preserve human life and dignity: only political and legal solutions can address the root causes of humanitarian problems and prevent them from recurring. In the spirit of seeking solutions to internal displacement, this article explores the possibility of an Asian regional legal instrument to better protect the displaced and prevent future displacement.

While displaced people might share very similar lived experiences, they are legally differentiated by their status as refugees or internally displaced people. A refugee is someone who crosses an international border due to a well-founded fear of persecution and who is unwilling or unable to gain the protection of their country of residence. Refugees are protected not only by international humanitarian law (IHL, also known as the “law of war” or the “law of armed conflict”) and international human rights law (IHRL), but also by legal instruments specific to their situation: the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Additional Protocol (UNHCR: Convention and Protocol).

On the other hand, an internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who has fled their home yet remains within the borders of their country of nationality or residence. Among the 108.4 million displaced people, the majority – 71.1 million – are internally displaced people (UNHCR “Internally Displaced People”). While in theory IDPs are protected by domestic law in the countries where they live, as well as by IHL and IHRL, they are often displaced precisely because of situational factors such as conflict or persecution that make it unlikely for their governments to adequately protect and assist them. Taking into account the sensitive nature of national sovereignty and the challenges of international bodies intervening in domestic conflicts, internally displaced people are less robustly protected by international law than refugees are, and international organizations sometimes face difficulty gaining access to the IDPs most direly in need of assistance.

Recognizing the legal gaps in IDP protection, in 1992 the United Nations General Assembly and Commission on Human Rights charged Francis Deng with drafting a framework on the protection of internally displaced people (Ní Ghráinne 2022, 66). The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement drew upon existing protections while also making important new interventions in IDP protection (for example, Principle 3 places the responsibility for upholding the Guidelines not only upon states, but also upon other authorities, such as non-state armed groups). Yet due to a variety of political constraints at the time, the Guiding Principles were drafted as a non-binding legal instrument, not as a treaty, and thus remain in the realm of “soft law” (Ní Ghráinne 2022, 68).

In this article, I propose a new legal contribution to the protection of internally displaced people: a Buddhism-inspired Asian Regional Compact on Internal Displacement. Buddhist identity and ethics profoundly shape political life in many Asian states today, from Sri Lanka to Myanmar and from Thailand to Bhutan. As the International Committee of the Red Cross Global Affairs Division’s ongoing engagement with religious circles has demonstrated, Buddhist tradition is a rich wellspring of humanitarian philosophy and ethical training (Religion and Humanitarian Principles); Buddhism also contributes enormously to the political will and grassroots networks critical to safeguarding humanitarian principles in south and southeast Asia, providing an ethical framework for arms-bearers to conduct themselves responsibly in accord with their own values and identities (Bartles-Smith et al 2024). Leveraging the impact of religion on the conduct of armed conflict is critical to enhancing IHL compliance and lessening the civilian sufferings of war (Bartles-Smith 2022). The same power of Buddhist ethics, values, and identity to promote and protect our........

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