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World Refugee Day 2011
Monday, 20 June 2011 21:38
(Press Release) - WORLD REFUGEE DAY 2011: DEMOCRACY, ELECTORAL VIOLENCE AND POPULATION DISPLACEMENTS IN WEST
AFRICA – A CALL TO ACTIONIntroduction
As we mark the 2011 World Refugee Day today, June 20, 2011 with the theme "One Refugee Without Hope is too Many", we seize the opportunity to reflect on emerging trends in democratic transition and human security in West Africa. While people of West Africa have sacrificed so much to fight military regimes and establish democratic governments in the region, they have sacrificed even more to ensure that the regimes are working for the commonwealth of the people. While series of natural disasters are the major cause for population displacements in other parts of the world, in West Africa, we are becoming increasingly concerned about the frequency and magnitude of man-made disasters as the leading cause of population displacements.
Although democracy does not promise to remove all the challenges plaguing communities adopting it, it has always been the hope of pro-democracy activists that democracy would provide a platform for inclusive and participatory governance in which all citizens are given equal opportunities to participate either directly or through their democratically elected representatives in decision making. While democratic transition in West Africa since the 1990s has been slow and marred by numerous setbacks, we have in the recent past years observed certain disturbing trends that strongly connects our elections and population displacements thus calling for reflection on the World Refugee Day 2011.
Elections and Population Displacements in West Africa
Elections across the world are known to be expensive. In West Africa, beside the added costs of deploying human and technological infrastructure for each election and the cost of post-election litigations that often follow; recent elections have come with a whole gamut of expensive challenges in the form of pre and post-election violence and the resultant loss of lives and human property. But more disturbing is the huge challenge of refugees and internal displacements that accompany elections in West Africa.
Presidential Elections in Nigeria in April 2011 were followed by rampant violence that forced about 40,000 people out of their homes across the country and especially in the Northern States of Kano, Kaduna and Bauchi. While the violence has since ended, many of the thousands displaced have not yet returned to their homes but continue to live in hurriedly prepared IDP camps and with friends and relatives. In Cote d’Ivoire, the violence following the 2010 General Elections is said to have led to the displacement of about 500,000 people some of whom sought refuge in neighbouring. In Guinea, the violence that followed the 2010 Presidential Polls displaced over 3000 persons while in Togo, electoral violence since 1990 has led to the displacement of thousands from their abodes.
Besides these examples, the stunted democratic transitions in The Gambia and Burkina Faso for example has led to situations in which previous elections are thought to have been severely flawed yet the people accepted them peacefully. We worry that continued denial of electoral justice could lead to future uprising much akin to the experience of the countries listed above.
As we prepare for Presidential Elections in Liberia and The Gambia and Legislative Election in Guinea later in the year as well as Presidential and/or Parliamentary Elections in Ghana, Mali, The Gambia, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Senegal in 2012, it is imperative that effective measures be put in place to ensure violence free elections. Therefore, lessons learnt from other countries where electoral violence and, or population displacement was reported or where the same was successfully averted should be closely studied and preventive measures taken.
Our Call
It is important therefore that Governments set up machineries to investigate the root causes of electoral violence with the view to conducting future elections with minimal violence and without population displacements. In this regard, we call on politicians to mobilize and educate their supporters in line with the principles of equity, justice and fairness. Specifically, we call on stakeholders in the region to prioritise the following:
1. The UNHCR, the AU’s Division of Humanitarian Affairs, Refugees and Displaced Persons under the Department for Political Affairs, the ECOWAS’ Department of Humanitarian Affairs and National Commissions for Refugees in West Africa:
• Work closely with national governments, civil society, human right advocates, the media and other stakeholders to develop strategies for the ratification, domestication and popularization of relevant international treaties especially the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance and the ECOWAS’ Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and to the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention). Such strategies must be concretized into implementable Work Plans at Continental, Regional and National levels.
• Conduct audits of refugees and internally displaced persons in the region and draw up a map showing patterns of displacements and population movements for easier reference.
• Immediately put in place mechanism for consultation and planning among stakeholders for activities to mark the next (2012) World Refugee Day.
2.The AU and ECOWAS:
• Strengthen the regional bodies for responding to the plight of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons. In this regard, working with national governments and other stakeholders, they must put in place mechanisms to fast track the resettlement of all refugees and internally displaced persons as well as evolving proactive and victim-centered policies to assist future victims.
• Advocate for the popularization, ratification and implementation of continental and regional treaties relating to the conduct of elections. Specifically, we refer to the AU’s African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance and the ECOWAS’ Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance.
• The AU Democracy and Electoral Assistance Unit (DEAU) and the ECOWAS Election Assistance Unit should immediately work with other stakeholders to conduct a post-mortem of all recent West African elections especially those who in which significant cases of electoral violence have been reported with the view to providing recommendations and policy advise to the region as well as all national governments. Subsequently, electoral violence and population displacements should be noted as priority issues to be observed and monitored in future elections.
3.The Governments of West African Countries:
• Set up machineries to carefully investigate the root and immediate causes of all cases of electoral violence in their countries. While we commend the decision of the Federal Government of Nigeria to set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the electoral violence, we also call on the Police to continue with its investigations and subsequently bring all suspected masterminds, financiers and foot soldiers to justice.
• Urgently put in place machineries for resettling all refugees and internally displaced persons presently within their borders and to ensure that the circumstances leading to their displacement are brought under control. While this is ongoing, to intensify efforts toward providing adequate facilities for the upkeep and security of all such persons.
• In line with relevant national, regional and international treaties to ensure that all the sponsors and perpetrators are brought to justice and victims receive compensation. Should it be established that some of the sponsors and perpetrators of electoral violence have already been elected or appointed into office, they must be removed forthwith and brought to justice.
• Prioritize the need to ratify, domesticate and popularize relevant international conventions relating to democracy and elections as well as to the plight of refugees and internally displaced persons. In this regard we call for urgent attention to be paid to the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance and the ECOWAS’ Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and to the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention).
4.Civil Society, the Media and Human Right Groups:
• Work closely with other stakeholders to popularize the aforementioned international treaties and use them to seek relief on behalf of victims of injustice.
• Device and deploy systems to effectively monitor and evaluate the impact of national and international policies directed at refugees and IDPs. In line with this, best practices should be promoted and sustained while ineffective policies should be reviewed and corrected.
• Develop programmes for research into emerging trends and patterns of population movements and displacement in the region to be followed by sustained advocacy, policy recommendations and periodic assessment of the effectiveness or otherwise of policy measures.
Conclusion:
As we join the whole world today to mark this solemn day, we share in the conclusion of the UNHCR that "One Refugee Without Hope is too Many" and call on all stakeholder to lend their support to the UNHCR, as well as corresponding organs within the AU and ECOWAS as well as National Commissions for Refugees in the struggle to ensure that all refugees and internally displaced persons are resettled and the conditions leading to their initial displacement are removed and reoccurrence prevented. We seize this opportunity to once more call for deeper reflection on elections and electoral justice and on citizenship and constitutional reforms in West Africa.
At the Centre for Democracy and Development, we remain committed to the efforts at deepening democracy and promoting violence-free elections in the region and creating a West Africa that is secured, peaceful, economically prosperous and democratically stable and also without refugees and internally displaced persons. We do believe that this West Africa is possible if we all join hands.
Signed
Jibrin Ibrahim, Ph.D.
Director
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Comments
You are not missguided in the spirit of your kind words...for the sake of your fellow countrymen... of good faith and conscience.
The Gambia is a fine home...
Let us pray for the home comming to begin.
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