SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND VICTIMS OF ARMED CONFLICT: ZERO HUNGER IN IDP CAMPS IN NIGERIA
Keywords:
Displacement, Armed Conflict, Hunger, Development Goals, SustainableAbstract
Sustainable development goals represent the world we want to see by 2030. It is the initiative of the United Nations driven by the success achieved with the millennium development goals. The sustainable development goals launched in the year 2000 is an all-inclusive strategy with the mandate to ‘leave no one behind’. The SDGs did not specifically mention IDP’s but they are captured as vulnerable groups. There is no specific framework in international law for this target group. This paper apprises sustainable development goals and victims of armed conflict and how the goals would ensure zero hunger in IDP camps in Nigeria. The paper observes that IDP’s are those who have moved away from their homes or their habitual places of residence due to several reason that ranges from conflict, abuse of human rights, generalised violence or human made disasters but have not crossed internationally recognised border, i.e. they are still within their national boundaries. The paper notes that in times of armed conflict, international humanitarian law is the primary legislation that regulates the conduct of hostilities and forbid attacks on civilian and objects indispensable to the survival of civilian. It forbids forced evacuations of civilians except on grounds of imperative military necessity. The paper observes that IHL has a lot of provisions protecting the displaced population and forbids the use of starvation as a method of warfare and has provisions reiterating the nine core SDGs that affects displaced persons in situations of armed conflict. The notes that the existing gaps in the IHL framework and posits that some provisions need further clarification but observed that the crucial problem is that States do not respect and ensure respect of the provisions of the law and have failed to disseminate the rules as widely as possible. The paper recommends that the root cause of displacement, i.e. conflict must be addressed. It further recommends that displaced persons must be included in policy decisions of government and that durable solution must be achieved for this group of persons.
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References
i Smale, A., ‘What the SDGs Mean’ UN Chronicle, < http://www.un.org> (Accessed 27 November 2020)
ii Ibid.
iii Ibid.
iv Article 1 (l) Kampala Convention 2012.
v The Guiding Principles on IDP was published 22 years ago (1998). See paragraph 2. It is not a legally binding
document but provides a framework principles and policies for states. See Internal Displacement Monitoring
Centre (IDMC), ‘Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID),’ May 2018 United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Figures at a glance, June 2018, <https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-ata-glance.html>, accessed 27 November 2020.
vi United Nation, ‘Promote Sustainable Development’, <https://www.un.org> accessed 28 November, 2020.
vii Ibid.
viii Ibid.
ix Ibid.
x Goal 1.
xi Goal 3.
xii Goal 4.
xiii Zeender, Greta. ‘The Sustainable Development Goals and IDPs’,
<https://www.fmreview.org/GuidingPrinciples20/zeender> accessed 27 November 2020.
xiv Ibid.
xv United Nations, ‘Sustainable Development Goals’, <https://www.sustainabledevelopment.un.org>, accessed
27 November 2020.
xvi This target was proposed in a 2014 open letter to Member States from UNHCR, OCHA, IOM, UNHCR and
the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of IDP’s.
xvii Zeender (n13), p2. Negotiations were undertaken by development officials and did not generally include
humanitarian or human rights experts that are familiar with IDP and refugee issues.
xviii Strohmeyer is the Policy Director at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
xix See also ‘Reaching Internally Displaced Persons to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,
<https://www.ipinst.org/2018/07/internally-displaced-persons-2030-agenda-sustainable-development#5>,
accessed 27 November 2020.
xx Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, ‘Reaching Internally Displaced Persons to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development, <https://www.ipinst.org/2018/07/internally-displaced-persons-2030-agenda-sustainabledevelopment#5>, accessed 27 November 2020.
xxi Ibid.
xxii Ibid.
xxiii Ibid.
xxiv Victoria Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs. See ‘Reaching
Internally Displaced Persons to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, p2,
<https://www.ipinst.org/2018/07/internally-displaced-persons-2030-agenda-sustainable-development#5>,
accessed 27 November 2020.
xxv Ibid.
xxvi International Peace Institute (IPI), ‘Reaching Internally Displaced Persons to achieve the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development,< https://www.ipinst.org/2018/07/internally-displaced-persons-2030-agendasustainable-development#5>, accessed 27 November 2020.
xxvii Article 57 (1) AP I
xxviii Article 58 (c) AP I
xxix Article 51 (7) AP I.
xxx Article 49 GC IV.
xxxi Article 14 AP II. See also Rules 53 and 54 CIHL Rules 2005.
xxxii Article 70 (1) AP I. See also Article 59 GC IV and Article 18 (2) AP II.
xxxiii ICRC, ‘Delivering Emergency Aid to People Affected by Armed Conflict in Nigeria’,
accessed 10
January, 2021. Between January and June 2017, the ICRC supplied food to 398,000 persons in the north-east
and Middle Belt, 76,000 persons received seeds, fertilizers, and tools to start farming. 26,000 persons including
widows received cash and basic training on small businesses. The ICRC is supporting 23 primary health care centers and 3 Mobile clinics that provided medical care to 255,000 patients. There was also improved sanitation
and hygiene conditions for 106,000 displaced persons and access to clean water for 213,000 persons.
xxxiv Article 55 GC IV.
xxxv Article 55 (2) GC IV. See also Article 69 AP I, Rule 55 CIHL Rules 2005.
xxxvi Article 11 (1) ICESCR 1966
xxxvii Article 11 (2) (a) ICESCR 1966
xxxviii This is the position held by the ICRC when it noted that ‘all assistance provided by the Red Cross is
distributed directly to the affected persons regardless of their religion, tribe or political affiliations and is given
free of charge’. The ICRC has been responding to humanitarian challenges in Nigeria for the past 32 years.
They provide rice, beans, condiments and one month’s supply of a nutrition supplement. They also give
blankets, mosquito nets, mats, tarpaulin, kitchen sets and clothing in an effort to improve the living conditions
of the displaced. The ICRC also works to improve sanitation and hygiene items by distributing soap and setting
up hand-washing stations and latrines. See ‘Nigeria: Emergency Relief to be provided for 22,000 people
Displaced by Violence in Plateau State’, https://www.icrc.org/en/document/nigeria-emergency-relief-beprovided-22000-people-displaced-violence-plateau-state?amp> accessed 10 January 2021.
xxxix DW News, ‘Nigeria: Militants kill dozens in attack on Farm’< https://www.dw.com/nigeria-militants-killdozens-in-attack-in-farm/
xl Ibid. ‘Nigeria: Boko Haram killed 76 Farrmers in Borno State’http://www.bbc.com/world-55122560 accessed
6 January, 2020
xli Danielle Paquette, ‘Militants Massacre at Least 110 Civilians on Nigerian Rice
Farm’<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/nigeria-massacre-farmers-borno/2020/11/30/f4437886-
11eb-9699-00d311f13d2d_story.html?outputType=amp>accessed 7 January 2021.
xlii Ibid.
xliii See Akpoghome, Theresa U and Ekene Adikibe, ‘Herdsmen and Farmers Conflict in Nigeria: A Quest for
Paradigm Shift’, BIU Law Journal, (2019), Vol. 5, Pp. 1-21. See also Beetseh Kwaghga, ‘Herdsmen/Farmers
Crises: A Threat to Democratic Governance in Nigeria’, Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, (2018),
Vol. 8, No. 11, Pp 100-108.
xliv It is observed that Nigerian and foreign News media have been unable to provide the exact numbers of
casualties. Globat Terrorism index reported that herder-farmer conflict resulted in 800 deaths in 2015. In 2016
there were further incidents in Agatu, Benue and Enugu States. In 2018 it was reported that Fulani gunmen
killed 19 people during an attack on a church. Another 200 people were killed and 50 houses burnt in clashes
between herders and farmers in Plateau in 2018. In the same year, the Fulani herders killed 19 people in Bassa.
In 2019, an attack on an Adara Settlement named Ungwar Bardi by suspected Fulani gunmen killed 11 persons.
A reprisal attack by Adara targeted settlements of the Fulani killing at least 141 persons with 65 persons
missing. These attacks took place in Kajuru LGA of Kaduna State. The Attorney General and Commissioner for
Justice, Benue State, stated that since the enactment of the Benue State Open Grazing Prohibition, Ranches
Establishment Law 2017, the rapidity and number of attacks on communities by suspected herdsmen have
reduced.
xlv Article 2 (b) Kampala Convention 2012.
xlvi Article III (2) (a) Kampala Convention 2012.
xlvii Principle 18 (1) (2) (a)-(d).
xlviii ICRC, ‘ICRC Response to COVID-19, Nigeria March-April 2020’<
https:www.icrc.org/en/document/delivering-emergency-aid-people-affected-armed-conflict?amp>accessed 10
January, 2021.
xlix However, UNHCR has conducted operations under certain circumstances to protect and provide
humanitarian assistance to IDP’s. See UNHCR’s mandate for Refugees, Stateless persons and IDP’s, February
11 2018.
l This principle, reflected in different bodies of international law, protects any person from being transferred
(returned, expelled, extradited- whatever term is used) from one authority to another when there are substantial
grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to violations of certain fundamental
rights. This principle is multi-faceted and can be found in different bodies of international law; it is applicable
whenever a person falls within the jurisdiction of a state; it can protect people fleeing from armed conflict; it
protects against direct and indirect measures that force a person to leave; and it requires procedural safeguards.
This principle is contained in rt. 12 of the GC III and Art. 45 (3) (4) GC IV. In the opinion of the ICRC, in times
of non-international armed conflict, the fundamental protections contained in common Article 3 are to be
understood as prohibiting parties to the conflict from transferring persons in their power to another authority
when those persons would be in danger of suffering a violation of those fundamental rights upon transfer.
li Article 1 common to the four Geneva Conventions provides that the High Contracting Parties undertake to
respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances.
lii Articles 47/48/127 and 145 of the four Geneva Conventions respectively and Articles 83 and 19 of AP I and
II.
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