African Union moves to protect IDPs
admin October 25th, 2009
On Friday last week the African Union (AU) adopted a new convention that will provide legal protection and assistance to millions of people displaced within their own countries by conflicts and natural calamities on the continent. All good stuff, but will it be more than window dressing, and will it make any real difference to the lives of the IDPs?
The Reuters report on the signing of The new African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa reported that it is “the first legal instrument of its kind in the world. It defines the obligations that states, and even armed groups, have to protect and assist their own uprooted citizens.”
Forty-six African nations unanimously adopted the landmark convention while 17 heads of state and government, and foreign ministers signed it, including the presidents of Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Somalia, and the prime ministers and vice presidents of Burundi, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Rwanda.
However, before it can come into effect the convention will need to be ratified by a minimum of 15 countries. And there have to be question marks over the capacity of African governments to enforce the Convention, even once it is ratified, let alone police the application of its provisions by the many armed groups that are active within the continent.
The AU reported in the course of the meeting last week that the continent had more than 11 million IDPs, a much higher number than that reported by the UNHCR.
Let us hope that this Convention is ratified rapidly not just by the minimum 15 countries but by all 46 signatories and that it then works on the ground to protect some of the most vulnerable people in Africa.
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