A/HRC/40/26 policy, institutional and other measures and taking a human rights–based approach that promoted equality and inclusion in support of durable solutions. It also meant the free, active and meaningful participation of all citizens, particularly internally displaced persons themselves, in all those processes, to ensure accountability and sustainability. 7. Finally, he said that the high-quality disaggregated data necessary to inform evidence-based policymaking were lacking. He also noted that none of the Sustainable Development Goals included targets for internally displaced persons as a specific group and that very few States had considered internally displaced persons in their voluntary national reviews. Internally displaced persons must be actively included in efforts to improve data collection, disaggregation and understanding of their experiences, but at the same time their right to privacy must be respected and data protection standards must be complied with. There was also a need to ensure that data could be used to measure progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals for internally displaced populations. In concluding, he stated that it was only by addressing the underlying causes of displacement that more resilient societies could be ensured and future displacement could be prevented. 8. The Assistant High Commissioner for Protection of UNHCR noted that 40 million people, more than double the number than at the birth of the Guiding Principles two decades earlier, were currently uprooted by conflict, violence and human rights violations. He also stressed that the millions of persons displaced internally by disasters should not be forgotten. Some 18.8 million incidents of disaster-induced displacement had been recorded in 2017 alone, many of them involving individuals who had been displaced multiple times. It was more necessary than ever to refocus collective efforts on reversing that trend. 9. While some important progress had been made in addressing internal displacement, particularly with the launch of the Guiding Principles, much remained to be done. The Guiding Principles were foundational for the protection of internally displaced persons and constituted a compilation of relevant international humanitarian and international human rights law specifically tailored to the situation of those forcibly displaced as a result of conflict, violence or disasters. Over time, the Principles had become the authoritative point of reference for normative and institutional frameworks. Twenty-four States referred directly to them in their own national laws or policies. States members of the African Union, taking inspiration from the Guiding Principles, had adopted the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention), a watershed regional instrument on internal displacement that would celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2019. The Guiding Principles informed the efforts of States and international organizations to prevent, respond to and resolve internal displacement. They were equally an important source of empowerment for the internally displaced themselves. 10. Affording protection was, in essence, human rights in action. It must be oriented towards people and communities, so that internally displaced persons could enjoy the widest possible array of human rights and fundamental freedoms, without discrimination. Protection also needed to drive humanitarian action, inspiring its operational design, coordination and implementation and interactions with development, human rights, security and political actors. He stressed that people and communities affected by displacement must be at the centre of protection work — by advocating for their rights, involving them in decisions that affected them, understanding the deeper reasons for their plight and seeking to improve their situation through hands-on operational engagement. Concrete, high-quality protection services must be provided to internally displaced persons, such as prompt access to professional care for survivors of sexual violence, legal aid to ensure access to justice and advocacy for and interventions on behalf of internally displaced persons when they faced an immediate risk. Assistance with registration and individual documentation, including to realize housing, land and property rights, was particularly critical. Examples of good practice in 2017 had included the rapid issuance of replacement documents to persons fleeing the Mosul emergency and the registration of property abandoned by individuals fleeing violence in Honduras. In that connection, he noted that the efforts made to reunite abandoned and separated children with their families in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and elsewhere should continue. 3