The displacement of people from their homes and ancestral lands due to development projects such as mega hydro dam construction; due to mining activities; due to conflicts; or climate change effects is one of the gross human rights injustices of our time. When people are internally displaced they don’t only loose homes, land and livelihoods – but they lose more including identity, culture, social capital and their mental and psychosocial wellbeing. I am convinced that whilst the displacements on their own are an undesirable injustice, the greatest travesty of justice is the failure by the responsible authorities to involve the affected people in decision making for the displacement or the compensation processes. Failure to involve the affected has been one of the major reasons for displacements resistance in Africa. Another gross injustice is the inability of the affected to defend their rights from forced displacements or to stand in solidarity because of the high levels of dehumanization and repression. The Africa Institute on Internal Displacements (AfIID) is therefore a dream that is dear to me and which wants to: • Promote pan-african solidarity on issues of internal displacements; • Strengthen nonviolent collective action for justice for the internally displaced • Ensure justice for the internally displaced in Africa is a reality of our lifetime • End all forms on unjust displacements in Africa I am convinced that if we stand together as pro-justice and pro-humanity solutionaries across the tribal, geographic, political, racial, economic, religious, or any status lines and speak with one voice – we will solve this plague of internal displacement injustices in Africa My name is Khumbulani Maphosa and I am the founder of AfIID. Thank you