Displacement V Development

Black’s Law Dictionary defines ‘displacement’ as ‘a forced removal of a person from the person’s home or country, especially because of war.’ Dictionary of Sociology defines ecological displacement as the process in which a stronger or more advanced group takes over an area (without military conquest- by economic pressure or sheer numbers) formerly occupied by a less advanced or weaker group.
The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement were formulated by a team of international legal scholars and presented to the United Nations (UN) in 1998. These were the first guidelines developed within the context of human rights and humanitarian law to address internal displacement and development-induced displacement. The Guiding Principles define internally displaced persons as “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 of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights, or natural or human-made disasters and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border." Principle 6 goes on to state that "Every human being shall have the right to be protected against being arbitrarily displaced from his or her home or place of habitual residence;" this prohibition against arbitrary displacement "includes displacement in cases of large-scale development projects which are not justified by compelling and overriding public interests.”
Michael Cernea, a sociologist, who has researched development-induced displacement and resettlement for the World Bank, points out that being forcibly ousted from one's land and habitat carries with it the risk of becoming poorer than before displacement, since a significant portion of people displaced do not receive compensation for their lost assets, and effective assistance to reestablish themselves productively. Cernea has identified eight interlinked