Tag: dialogue

After months of sitting, the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North has submitted its report. It was unable to reach the leadership of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, which activities informed the raising of the panel, for talks. With the submission of its report, the panel’s job may be said to have been done, but can it be said to have achieved much?

President Goodluck Jonathan set up the 26-man committee on the heels of Boko Haram’s attacks in which thousands of people died.

At its inauguration in April, the president tasked the committee on the following:

(i) Developing a framework for the granting of amnesty.

(ii)  Setting up of a framework  through which disarmament could take place within a 60-day time frame.

(iii) The development of a comprehensive victims’ support programme.

(iv) The development of mechanisms to address the underlying causes of insurgencies that will help to prevent future occurrences.

The Kabiru Turaki-led Committee admitted its failure to achieve a very important aspect of its terms of reference: reaching the Boko Haram leadership.

Despite travelling round the North for seven months, the committee said the sect’s leadership refused to dialogue with it, despite its efforts.

Turaki linked some of the problems the panel encountered to failure of past attempts at negotiations and resultant distrust by the insurgents.

Many of the key members of the sect in detention, he said, responded to contacts and accepted dialogue as an option in resolving the security crisis.

Among others, the committee observed that the proliferation of small arms and light weapons exacerbate conflicts and violence in the country.

It also found that there is “palpable impunity” in committing crimes and other acts of violence due to the absence of deterrent measures taken to punish perpetrators.

Turaki  claimed that there is an absence of effective early warning and early response mechanism for anticipating and preventing violent conflicts.

Traditional rulers, he said, were not fully involved in security management, resulting in avoidable security lapses.

The committee made a number of recommendations to the government, namely:

•Set  up  a Victims Support Fund for victims of insurgency to be administered by a new agency established specifically to assist the victims

•Set up  an advisory committee on continuous dialogue that will have powers to advise the president on all matters related to resolution of crises.

•The need to improve their condition of service, equipment and training of security agencies.

While receiving the report, President Jonathan ruled out compensation for terror victims. He also said that the report would be subjected to review by another committee.

But are the recommendation of the committee enough to prevent acts of terror if implemented?

Some analysts are worried about the decision of the government not to compensate the victims who suffered loses due to no fault of theirs.

Although President Jonathan has  said the government was to dialogue, how feasible is this?

Lawyers are divided on whether victims should be compensated.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Chief Felix Fagboungbe said terror victims have not been well treated. For him, the victims should be adequately compensated by the government.

He noted that the committee could not initiate process for dialogue because the Boko Haram  members  are evasive.

On issue of disarmament, Fagbohungbe said: “The committee could not do anything about this because people did not come out to tell government what could assist them in this area. Since none of the sect members came out to lay down weapons, the issue of disarmament would not arise.

“If they had come out to tell the committee what they need, there would have been the consideration of surrendering their weapons but that is not the situation in this case.”

Lagos lawyer and rights activist Mr Theophilus Akanwa, however, said no new agency should be created in the name of compensating terror victims.

Doing so, he said, would only create room for corruption in country where there is no transparency.

“I do not agree that there should be a Victims Support Fund for victims of insurgency to be administered by a new agency established specifically to assist the victims. So much unaccountable money have been mapped out on security votes.

“Whatever support is needed for victims should be drawn from the security votes. No new agency should be created because we have enough agencies already in existence that should take charge of such incidence. Why create an agency if I may ask? This report tends to tilt towards the inability of the military to subdue the Boko Harram.

“There is absolutely no need for the creation of agencies. Rather, we should have reduction of agencies as most of them seem to be moribund while the tax payers money is expended on them. The cost of running government should be reduced.

“I support the fact that there is need to improve the condition of service, equipment and training of security agencies/agents. But this is long overdue and government knows this. Government cannot dialogue with invisible people and I don’t think the US approach to insurgency is dialogue. The military must subdue the boko harram.”

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) issued an urgent appeal to President Goodluck Jonathan urging him to “reverse the recently announced policy of zero compensation for victims of Boko Haram attacks.”

The group said that the government should “within 14 days of the publication of this appeal announce compensation and reparation policies for victims of attacks by Boko Haram, and begin a process of establishing mechanisms for the effective and transparent implementation of such policies.”

The group in the Urgent Appeal dated November 7 and signed by its executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni threatened to take “all necessary legal actions nationally and internationally to compel the government to fulfil its international human rights obligations and commitments,” if the government does not comply with its appeal.

The group said: “In the wake of the devastation by Boko Haram, compensation and reparation programmes are absolutely essential to deliver justice to the victims of human rights abuses precipitated by the group. Paying compensation and reparation to victims of human rights abuses by Boko Haram is a matter of rights and not charity. Refusing or failing to pay adequate compensation and reparation to victims is to buy impunity for perpetrators.”

”SERAP is seriously concerned about the policy of your government that there will be no compensation paid to victims of Boko Haram attacks. This policy is a clear violation of the country’s international human rights obligations and commitments to provide effective remedies, including compensation and reparation to victims of serious human rights abuses such as those perpetrated by Boko Haram,” the group also stated.

According to the group, “The attacks against innocent citizens by the Boko Haram constitute gross violations of international human rights law, having being systematically perpetrated, and affecting in qualitative and quantitative terms, the most basic rights of human beings, notably the right to life and the right to physical and moral integrity of the human person. These serious human rights abuses have in turn contributed to deliberate and systematic deprivation of basic necessities of life such as essential foodstuffs, access to education for many Nigerian children, essential health care or basic shelter and housing.”

“In the first place, it is the primary duty of any government to guarantee the security of the population, and the absence of concrete measures has contributed to the continuation of violence.  The government’s failure on internal security is also a serious breach of the government’s human rights obligations and commitments, including under the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to which Nigeria is a state party,” the organisation further said.

The group said therefore that, “victims of violence and crimes must have effective access to legal and health services, and should have access to an effective remedy, including compensation and reparation.”

According to the group, “The fundamental principles of compensation for human rights abuses are well grounded in international human rights treaties and standards to which this country has subscribed. In particular, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law require governments to protect and promote human rights through action to combat impunity.”

The group also quoted the Permanent Court of International Justice as stating in the Chorzow Factory case that “It is a principle of international law that the breach of an engagement involves an obligation to make a reparation in an adequate form.”

“Under international law, compensation should be provided for any economically assessable damage, and proportional to the gravity of the violation and the circumstances of each case, resulting from gross violations of international human rights law, such as loss of lives, lost opportunities, loss of earnings and moral damage,” the group added.

“If victims of arbitrary detention could collectively receive compensation and reparation in countries like Argentina, there is no moral or legal basis for the government not to do the same for the victims of Boko Haram that have suffered greater level of human rights abuses. Even in Turkey the government established compensation and reparation schemes for the victims of internal displacement. Brazil established compensation and reparation schemes for the victims of disappearance and death of non-natural causes in police or similar premises. And Chile and Morocco did the same for the victims of deadly political violence, political executions and disappearance while in detention. There are other examples too numerous to mention here,” the group also argued.

The group concluded that, “The right to compensation and reparation imposes on this government the duty to provide redress for harm suffered by victims of Boko Haram, in the form of restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and, as the case may be, guarantees of non-repetition. This right also imposes a duty on the government to provide effective domestic remedies.”

Lagos lawyer Ikechukwu Ikeji said the recommendation of the committee is a reality check that goes to show that the government is a long way from resolving the challenges of insurgency. Some of the recommendations are clearly good in themselves but also show that there was no need to jump the gun initially to set up the committee.

“ In my view, the recommendations do not reassure me that they can help in preventing a reoccurrence of boko haram. It is important to look at the underlying causes, which includes injustice in the system and level of poverty, which touch on good governance”, he said.

On the decision of the government to subject the report of the committee to review by another committee, Ikeji said it is unfortunate that the government has come to be  known as a government of committees, which gulp tax payers money and end up achieving little or nothing.

Following the admittance of the committee’s failure to open dialogue with the leaders of the sect, he argued that the way forward for the country, if it must rid herself of the activities of the  sect is for the government to invite direct foreign assistance and report the case to the International Criminal Court for further investigation and prosecution.