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War Watch
Legal Explainers

Forcible Displacement

IHL does not prohibit the voluntary movement of civilian populations in situations of armed conflict (e.g., to flee hostilities and seek refuge). However, it does prohibit those situations where displacement is forcible – i.e., when the desire to leave is not genuine but rather determined by physical force or psychological coercion.1 ICRC, Updated Commentary on GC IV, 2025, paras 3169–3173; ICJ, Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, Advisory Opinion, 2024, para. 145; ICTY, Prosecutor v Stakić (Appeals Judgment), Case no 97-24-A, 22 March 2006, para 281 With this objective, IHL explicitly regulates the conduct of parties to a conflict towards the people in their power in the context of occupation and in NIACs. Beyond those two situations, displacement is only incidentally regulated in some provisions regulating the conduct of hostilities.

In occupied territory

In the context of military occupation, the forcible displacement of protected persons within occupied territory (called “forcible transfer”) or from occupied territory (called “deportation”) is prohibited, regardless of the motive.2 Art 49(1) GC IV; ICRC, Customary IHL Rule 129: ‘The Act of Displacement’, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule129 Only temporary evacuations are permitted under specific circumstances – i.e., if the security of the population so requires, or if imperative military reasons so demand.3 Art 49(2) GC IV In principle, such evacuations can only take place within the occupied territory – evacuations outside the occupied territory might only take place when it is materially impossible to do otherwise.4 Art 49(2) GC IV In any case, evacuated persons must be transferred back to their homes as soon as the reasons for evacuation have ceased.5 Art 49(2) GC IV Additionally, and as a corollary to the prohibition on annexation by force, the Occupying Power is prohibited under any circumstances to transfer its own population into occupied territory.6 Art 49(6) GC IV

During NIACs

In situations amounting to NIACs, it is prohibited to order the displacement of the civilian population for reasons related to the conflict, except where required for their own security or for imperative military reasons. 7Art 17(1) AP II Therefore, even in this context the prohibition on forced displacement leaves open the possibility for evacuations grounded in the security of civilians or in imperative military reasons. However, under Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions, compelling civilians to leave their own territory for reasons related to the conflict is prohibited.8 Art 17(2) AP II Therefore, when AP II applies, evacuations of the civilian population under the two grounds mentioned above could only be undertaken within the territory that each party to the armed conflict controls; conversely, evacuations outside that territory (and, all the more so, deportations across the border) are absolutely prohibited and could not be justified on any grounds.9 See Y. Sandoz et al, Commentary on the Additional Protocols of 8 June 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, ICRC, 1986, paras 4858–4868; see also ICRC, Customary IHL Rule 129: ‘The Act of Displacement’ and related Commentary, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule129

Treatment of displaced persons

In all cases of displacement, either in international or non-international armed conflicts, all possible measures must be taken to ensure that displaced or evacuated civilians are received in satisfactory conditions of shelter, hygiene, health, safety and nutrition, and that family members are not separated.10 Art 49(3) GC IV; Art 17(1) AP II; ICRC, Customary IHL Rule 131: ‘Treatment of Displaced Persons’, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule131 Furthermore, displaced persons have a right to voluntary return in safety to their homes or places of habitual residence as soon as the reasons for their displacement cease to exist,11 Art 49(2) GC IV; ICRC, Customary IHL Rule 132: ‘Return of Displaced Persons’, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule132 and their property must be protected and respected while they remain displaced.12 ICRC, Customary IHL Rule 133: ‘Property Rights of Displaced Persons’, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule133

Displacement as a result of hostilities

Beyond the two situations of belligerent occupation and NIACs, displacement is only dealt with as an accessory matter in rules governing the conduct of hostilities. In particular, IHL prohibits the parties to the conflict to order movements of civilians or to take advantage of their displacement in order to shield military objectives, or to favour or impede military operations.13 Art 51(7) AP I; see also ICRC, Customary IHL Study Rule 97: ‘Human Shields’, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v2/rule97 Furthermore, in line with the goal in IHL of protecting the civilian population from the effects of hostilities, the destruction of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population is absolutely prohibited, even when they are used by the adverse party in direct support of military action, if its destruction would cause the forcible movement of the civilian population. Art 54(3)(b) AP I More in general, it has been noted that parties to a conflict shall prevent conflict-related displacement that is caused by their own acts, at least those which are prohibited in and of themselves.14 ICRC, Commentary to Customary IHL Rule 129: ‘The Act of Displacement’ and related Commentary, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule129; Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, UN Doc E/CN.4/1998/53/Add2, 1998, Principle 5

In addition to these prohibitions, parties to the conflict remain obliged to remove the civilian population, individual civilians as well as civilian objects from the vicinity of military objectives.15 Art 58 AP I; Art 13(1) AP II; ICRC, Customary IHL Rule 24: ‘Removal of Civilians and Civilian Objects from the Vicinity of Military Objectives’, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule24 

Despite their paucity, the IHL rules concerning conflict-related displacement evidence that the phenomenon is conceived as an exceptional and temporary circumstance designed to protect the civilian population. Additionally, other legal regimes applicable in armed conflict concurrently with IHL also inform the duties and obligations of States towards displaced civilians.