The Brookings Institution-SAIS Project on Internal Displacement Risks and Rights: The Causes, Consequences, and Challenges of Development-Induced Displacement by W. Courtland Robinson An Occasional Paper May 2003 Risks and Rights: The Causes, Consequences, and Challenges of Development-Induced Displacement by W. Courtland Robinson THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION – SAIS PROJECT ON INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20036-2188 and 1717 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 555, NW, Washington DC 20036 TELEPHONE: 202/797-6145 FAX: 202/797-6003 EMAIL:
[email protected] FOREWORD Each year, millions of persons are forcibly displaced by development projects, whether dams, roads, reservoirs or oil, gas and mining projects. While such projects can bring enormous benefits to society, they also impose costs, which are often borne by its poorest and most marginalized members. As author W. Courtland Robinson points out, “for millions of people around the world—development has cost them their homes, their livelihoods, their health, and even their very lives.” Impoverishment and disempowerment often become their lot, with particularly harsh consequences for women and children. Although internally displaced persons are often defined as those uprooted by conflict, human rights violations and natural or human-made disasters, they also include those displaced by development projects. Indeed, Robinson points out: “While victims of disaster—especially natural disaster—generally are the focus of sympathetic attention and international