Global Overview 2012: People internally displaced by conflict and violence - Peru

Number of IDPsAbout 150,000
Percentage of total populationAbout 0.5%
Start of displacement situation1980
Peak number of IDPs (year)1,000,000 (1990)
New displacement in 2012Undetermined
Causes of displacementx International armed conflict
✓ Internal armed conflict
x Deliberate policy or practice of arbitrary displacement
x Communal violence
x Criminal violence
x Political violence
Human development index77

Most of the people internally displaced as a result of the conflict between the government and the Shinning Path and Túpac Amaru revolutionary groups at the height of the conflict during the 1990s have returned to their place of origin or settled elsewhere in the country.

In 2007 the government estimated that 150,000 people were still internally displaced, mostly in urban centres including Lima, Ayacucho, Junín, Ica and Huánuco. As of the end of 2012, there was no data evaluating their situation or comparing it with that of the general population.

A law on internal displacement passed in 2004 was an important step towards protecting and assisting the remaining IDPs. It incorporated the Guiding Principles and assigned responsibility for coordination of the response to the Ministry of Women and Social Development (now the Ministry for Women and Vulnerable Populations).

In order for IDPs to qualify for individual and collective reparations alongside other victims of conflict, they must register on Peru's Unique Registry of Victims, which was set up in 2007. More than 157,000 people had registered by the end of 2012, but no disaggregated information was available to show how many were IDPs.

Individual reparations are due to begin in 2013, but collective reparations for IDPs who have not returned to their places of origin have already been postponed several times. A final draft of guidelines for the implementation of collective reparations was to be discussed at the end of December 2012.

The government is reportedly not addressing the needs of IDPs at the same level of priority as other victims, especially those who have suffered physical harm. This has been observed both in terms of assistance programmes and the comprehensive reparations plan.

Violence associated with the cultivation and export of coca and cocaine posed an ongoing threat of displacement in 2012.

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