Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical storms ever recorded, displaced over four million people in the Philippines. To understand the long-term impacts of displacement from this disaster, SEI and the Philippines’ national-level independent Commission on Human Rights (CHR) began research in 2020 on the development implications of disaster displacement and durable solutions.

The study aims to inform legislative and policy processes related to human rights, development, transformative disaster risk reduction, long-term disaster recovery, durable solutions and internal displacement in the Philippines. The findings presented here are the first results from this study, which will be published in whole as a separate report.

Human rights are often compromised for people who become displaced in the wake of disasters. As climate change increases the impact of disasters, protecting displaced persons’ human rights will become even more challenging – particularly in the Philippines, which had the highest number of new disaster displacements in the world last year (IDMC, 2020, 2021). The Philippines, however, has no national policy or law specific to the rights of internally displaced persons, despite recent efforts. Responses to displacement are guided by international humanitarian standards and guidelines.

Acknowledgement: with thanks to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees-CHR IDP Protection Project for funding support.