FG ratifies internally displaced persons treaty
Category: Law
Nigeria made history, December 6, 2012, by becoming the 12th and one of the 15 African states to ratify the world’s first comprehensive, innovative and newest regional human rights treaties, the African Union Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (IDPs), adopted in Kampala, Uganda in 2009. Professor Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan of ABU, Zaria, Law Faculty, one of the lead advocates in Africa on making the convention work and the lead Nigerian consultant in its domestic implementation strategies since 2006, disclosed this to our correspondent yesterday.The professor of Law said that Nigeria accounts for almost one million out of Africa’s nine million people internally displaced due to armed conflicts and general violence in 2011.
This figure, he said, excludes the millions of persons displaced within their own countries due to natural disasters and development projects.
In 2012 alone, according to NEMA and NCFR, Nigeria accounts for over one million IDPs due to flood and other disasters.
Among other things, the convention aims at establishing a legal framework for preventing internal displacement, obligations on governments and non-state actors to protect and assist IDPs irrespective of the causes.
“It is a remarkable achievement and a comprehensive treaty that seeks to address the multiple causes of internal displacement; the needs of both IDPs and their host communities that take them in, and to help find durable solutions for their return, reintegration and rehabilitation back into their communities.
“The challenge, however, is that of political will to implement the provisions of the treaty in the best interest and well-being of IDPs in Africa,” Prof. Ladan said.