In order to further mitigate the negative effect of war conflicts on civilians and maintain peace in war zones, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in collaboration with Centre for Civilians in Conflict with support from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has held a one day stakeholders forum in Abuja on Tuesday.
The objective of the forum is to deepen the understanding of stakeholders and mobilize interest to support the notification and Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval of the Draft National Policy on PoC -CHM and agree on the roadmap and effective implementation of the policy. Stakeholders present at the meeting were the National Human Rights Commision (NHRC), Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Interior among others.
Auwal Musa, the Executive Director of CISLAC in his remark, explained that a holistic approach is required to protect and secure the civilian population due to the amount of casualty recorded as a result of the violence and conflict that is taking the lives of Nigerians,
He said that in view of the daunting challenges of loss of human lives and properties and several casualties seen by Nigerians on a regular basis, the government needs to expedite steps to protect civilians as enshrined in our constitution.
He said, “The PoC document is one of the steps needed to have this kind of policy and ensure sustainable peace in the country. The absence of this legal framework is creating gaps in the protection, and promotion of peace in the country.
“We cannot afford to continue to lose the lives of Nigerians on a regular basis. You could see what is happening – actually, no part of the country is safe and secure as a result of the activities of either bandits, insurgents, terrorists or other criminals that are terrorising Nigerians. In some cases, even the security personnel engage in inflicting pain on the people; that is why we need to have a legal framework that will help to protect Nigerians from these unwarranted and unjustified killings that Nigerians are facing.”
Mujidang Sitdang, the Acting Country Director of CIVIC, said that the organisation in the last three years has had several engagements in the North East on advocacy, where it continues to work with stakeholders to protect civilians and also carry out trainings in institutions in terms of building capacity for security agencies and officers and men of the Nigerian armed forces on protection of civilians.
He added that the drafting started 3 years ago with loads of consultations supported by various ministries and agencies and the communities themselves, especially in the North East, but has now extended to other states in Nigeria.
“Once the ‘Protection of Civilian’ policy is accented to, I see that as a huge opportunity for the entire Nigeria and especially communities, to be able to understand how they will best protect themselves working with the security agencies. Because the gap has been that once military or security forces are deployed, the community also feels everyone is doing their business. So the policy would be that framework that would provide opportunities for communities to continue to engage with security forces to better protect themselves.
“For the Nigerian military and other security agencies, it would be an opportunity to better understand communities while they also try to achieve their objectives, ” he said.
An overview of the Policy by Julius Gaiya of CIVIC, explained that “adoption of the policy will make Nigeria the first country in Africa to have such a policy that aims at safeguarding the citizens from harm, especially with the current situation in Nigeria.
“Threats to civilians during conflicts, he said, have taken many forms. Hence the concept of PoC seeks to address these threats by mitigating harm, facilitating access to basic needs and establishing a safe and secure environment for Nigeria.
“The PoC goes beyond physical persons, it also covers objects and encompasses all efforts made to avoid or minimise the negative effects on civilians, arising from military operations.”
