LONDON (AlertNet) - African countries are expected to adopt a ground-breaking convention providing rights for the first time to millions of internally displaced people at a summit in the Ugandan capital Kampala this week.

Africa is home to some 12 million internally displaced people (IDPs) - those uprooted within their own country - or almost half of the world's IDPs. Unlike refugees - people who have fled to another country - IDPs benefit from little or no protection.

Here is a summary of how the two groups are treated.

REFUGEES

The main source of refugee law - a 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol - describes a refugee as someone forced to leave his or her home country by a well-founded fear of persecution because of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

Regional conventions in Africa and Latin America have expanded the definition of a refugee to include people who have fled war, violence or massive violations of human rights in their country.

The 1951 convention sets out refugees' rights in host countries, which include the right to work, the right to housing and the most important right not to be expelled or returned to the country of origin where a refugee's life or freedom would be threatened because of persecution.

Refugees have a specialist U.N. agency to help them, the UNHCR.

INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE

The 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement define IDPs as people forced to flee because of war, violence, human rights violations or natural or human-made disasters and who have not crossed an international border.

Unlike refugees, IDPs remain at the mercy of their government, which may view them as enemies of the state. They may also fall prey to rebels and militias operating inside or outside camps for displaced people.

There is no single international agency, nor an international treaty, that focuses on internal displacement, and many IDPs receive no humanitarian aid or protection at all.

However, IDPs are protected by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which entitles everyone to the right to life, liberty and security and prohibits torture, slavery, arbitrary arrest and detention among other rights.

During armed conflict, civilian IDPs are also covered by the so-called laws of war spelt out in the Geneva Conventions, which require protecting civilians from attack.

The U.N. refugee agency helps IDPs in some situations because the reasons and consequences of their forced migration are often similar to those of refugees.

Sources:

UNHCR guide to international refugee law

Guiding principles on internal displacement

Convention and protocol relating to the status of refugees

Protecting refugees: a field guide for NGOs

(Additional reporting by Branka Juran)

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