PROTECTION OF RIGHTS OF VICTIMS OF INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT IN NIGERIA: A TASK IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT AN ENABLING LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Abstract

Internally displaced persons all over the world are bonafide citizens of their countries of origin and notwithstanding the place and condition or situation they find themselves as a result of displacement, they are entitled to all the rights and privileges to which other citizens are entitled before the law. Internal displacement which may occur as a result of natural disaster, armed conflicts, violence, human rights violations, human factors or activities as well as economic and political policies of governments place the individual victims in a state of helplessness and pity making them highly vulnerable. This harsh reality on the conditions of victims of internal displacement has generated a lot of concern both at the national, regional, and at International Fora thereby igniting the quest for the promotion and protection of the rights of the IDPs found anywhere in the world. One of the primary challenges to the protection of the rights of victims of internal displacement is the seeming or clear absence of legal framework in most countries for the protection of victims of internal displacement. Nigeria is included in the list of countries without such legal framework. Furthermore, most states place reliance on the “General Principles for the Protection of Internally Displaced Person†as adopted by the United Nations. The problem with the “General Principles†is that it merely made general statements and guidelines that states and the international community can adopt for promoting and protecting IDPs without conferring duties or obligations on states. Another serious question on the issue of protecting IDPs in many countries especially in West African Sub-region is the inability of the states to domesticate the Kampala Convention which at present is the only instrument that can be said to have legally given a definite, bold, and progressive advancement and protection of rights of IDPs. Nigeria is yet to come up with any legal framework locally enacted for the protection of IDPs and everything as it is today in Nigeria on displacement is based on matter of political policy by Federal Government without any legal flavour. Much as the country has no such National legal framework for the welfare and protection of the IDPs, the National Assembly has also not been above board to domesticate the Kampala Convention. Thus, the problem of protecting the victims of displacement becomes a complicated one. Views have been expressed on whether or not they should be protected as “refugees†under the Refugees Act but they are not refugees at least for the fact that they are still within the territories of their country of origin – Nigeria. At least what the IDPs get in Nigeria is the combined efforts of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and National Commission of Refugees pioneered by the policy of Federal Government towards protecting persons hit by menace of “so called†emergencies. This paper looks at internal displacement in Nigeria, nature, causes, effects, and consequences, financial implications towards addressing displacement, the International instruments if any protecting rights of IDPs, Regional Conventions or treaties or guidelines and National framework if any in Nigeria, the challenges of protection of IDPs in Nigeria and suggestions and recommendations.