Although displaced people have a greater risk of facing human rights violations, women and girls are the most marginalized within the displaced people’s community. Displaced women and girls have greater risk of sexual violence (including as an instrument of war), issues due to lack of health care and being blocked from health care at checkpoints, and women being forced into prostitution because of lack of other economically viable options. In Burma and Sri Lanka, domestic violence was the most common form of violence. Currently, twenty-six million people are internally displaced; the countries with the most internally displaced people were Sudan (5.8 million), Colombia (up to 4 million), Iraq (2.5 million), Democratic Republic of the Congo (1.4 million), and Uganda (1.3 million.)
Compiled from: “Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments 2007,” Internal Displacement Monitoring Center of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC,) April 2008.