International protection and assistance for refugees and the displaced: institutional challenges and the United Nations reform

It raises these issues, not within an exclusively refugee or displacement context, but with regard overall to the United Nation humanitarian response system and current reforms. Among others, the issues which call for review include the identification of those requiring 'international protection', of the agency or mechanism most appropriate to provide such protection, and of the means by which protection can be co-ordinated with other humanitarian activities.

To that end, the paper recalls some very brief history and the emergence of the concept of 'protection', examines some of the institutional dimensions to debate regarding internally displaced persons (including lines of authority and lines of accountability), considers the recent focus on 'clustering' in the UN emergency response discourse, and finally poses a number of questions, challenges and possibilities for future roles in protection and assistance for refugees and the displaced.