Senate seeks legal framework to protect, resettle IDPs

The Senate on Tuesday, sought legal framework to provide for effective monitoring of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the country in order to ensure that they are protected, rehabilitated, reintegrated and resettled in Nigeria.

This, Followed a consideration of a Bill on the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons In Africa (Domestication And Enforcement) Bill, 2021, sponsored by Senator Ibezim Chukwuma (Imo North).

The bill which passed second reading sought to domesticating the Kampalla Convention  to pave way for a paradigm shift in relief and humanitarian assistance to IDPs.

The Upper Chamber also sought to ensure the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, provision of foundational education and environmental remediation for survivors of conflicts in the country.

In his lead argument, Sen. Chukwuma lamented that “the poor management of the IDP, due to indequacies in the existing legal and institutional framework as a result of overlap of statutory responsibilities. 

“As a result of this, most victims of displacement are left to their fate after the relief phase or even without basic relief assistance.”

“Domesticating the provisions of the Kampalla Convention signed by the federal government in October 2009, and ratified in April 2012, will comply with “the requirements of Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution which requires that treaties signed between Nigeria and other countries or international bodies should first be domesticated by an Act of the National Assembly with further ratification by a majority of the Houses of Assembly in the federation”, Chukwuma stated.

According to the lawmaker, available statistics by the internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (iDMC) shows that as at the end of 2014, Nigeria accounted for at least 1 million of the 38 million IDPs worldwide. 

“And by the end of 2020, the country has contributed about 2.7 million IDPs to global internal displacement figure of about 55 million with the figure rising daily and most victims camped in crowded IDP camps across the country.

“The need to provide education to survivors of conflicts who are displaced from their homes, the Imo North lawmaker said that “as an empowerment right, education is the primary vehicle by which economically and socially marginalized adults and children can lift themselves out of poverty and obtain the means to participate fully in their communities. We are also aware that people uprooted from their homes are even more vulnerable if they cannot read and write”.

He, therefore, called for a new framework to provide for effective monitoring of the implementation of the Kampalla Convention and future policies on IDPs in the country; adding that while intervention agencies like the “National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) continues to provide humanitarian assistance to natural/man-made disasters as provided in the enabling Act, the National Commission for Refugees (NCR) will be concentrating on refugee crisis.”

He further reiterated that measures proposed by the Bill will help compliment relief agencies’ efforts to provide post-relief intervention to IDPs.