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31 December 2010
In 2004, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Armenia’s Migration Agency found some 8,400 people still internally displaced as a result of the 1988-1994 war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. At least 65,000 people had fled the area bordering Azerbaijan during the war. There has been no further conflict-induced displacement since 1994.
Most IDPs returned to their homes following the conflict, but some could not as their villages were surrounded by Azerbaijani forces, or because of the insecurity and the poor economic conditions there. Those remaining are believed to be dispersed in rural and urban areas; a new survey of IDPs is due in 2011.
The situation of IDPs did not change in 2010. Their main concerns remained the lack of adequate housing and economic opportunities, and the lack of decent education and subsequent prospects for young people. In 2010 IDPs received no targeted government or international assistance.
During the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of Armenia’s human rights record in 2010, the government stated that its foremost concern regarding IDPs was to ensure their safe return to their former places of residence. However, the 2010 annual report of the public defender of Armenia highlighted the lack of adequate conditions for return and called on the authorities to improve the legal protection of IDPs.
The RSG on IDPs visited Armenia in 2010 and concluded that the government and the international community should do more for IDPs. The RSG and also the EU called for greater efforts to reach a peace agreement.
IDPs’ prospects of durable solutions remain dim without government and international support and assistance. They may improve if the planned survey of IDPs provides estimates of their settlement preferences as well as their remaining displacement-related needs, and donors respond with adequate funding.
Some 20 years after the beginning of Armenia’s war with Azerbaijan and related violence, information on the remaining 8,400 people internally displaced is scarce. People internally displaced by the conflict have received hardly any government attention because other larger refugee and internally displaced groups have made competing demands on the state budget in a time of economic transition and crisis. International organisations have also largely neglected their plight. The low public profile and lack of registration and monitoring of these internally displaced people (IDPs) and returnees have made it difficult to estimate how many have achieved durable solutions.
IDPs and returnees face some of the same challenges as their non-displaced neighbours, and some face additional particular hardships including the loss of or damage to property, the unavailability of property restitution or compensation mechanisms, the inability to visit former homes and the continuing insecurity in border areas. (...)
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23 February 2010