(Audio) Statelessness: UNHCR, ECOWAS seek implementation of Banjul Plan of Action
Implementation
By Lizzy Okoji
Abuja, Oct. 25, 2018 (NAN) The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission have called on ECOWAS member states to implement the Banjul Plan of Action to end statelessness.
Representatives of the UNHCR and ECOWAS commission made this known on Thursday in Abuja at a roundtable with government representatives and stakeholders to raise awareness on statelessness and call for implementation of relevant instruments.
Speaking at the event, Mrs Brigitte Mukanga-Eno, UNHCR’s Deputy Representative to Nigeria, said that the implementation of relevant instruments and Plan of Action was crucial to finding sustainable solutions to statelessness.
Statelessness is a situation where someone is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law.
It refers to the absence of a legal bond between a person and a state, which confers upon the national certain rights (like the right to live in the country or participate in elections, among other things).
- Cue in audio (Mukanga-Eno)
“Implementation is where we could take the necessary actions to recognize the problems within the continent, to identify the numbers of stateless persons that we have in our various countries and to provide solutions.
“Like for the case of Nigeria, Nigeria has ratified the two instruments relating to statelessness but it is not yet implemented.
“The first call we are making to ECOWAS member states is for those who are yet to ratify to do so and for those who have ratified to implement these instruments because, it gives solution to put in place measures for the registration or enrollment of stateless persons and then they can be documented and enjoy their rights.
“In Nigeria we still have the people of the Bakassi Peninsula that was ceded to Cameroon in 2002.
“The territory was given to Cameroon, but people claim to be Nigerians and many of them were relocated within other states in Nigeria from Cross Rivers to Akwa Ibom.
“Unfortunately, they are still living in IDPs-like situation, they have not been integrated, documented.
“Some of them who decided to remain in Cameroon, Cameroon is harassing them, not providing their documentations and they do not want to naturalise either so they are really in between the two states.
“There is need to look at some of these issues, document these people and give them their right as citizens.’’
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Mukanga-Eno said that with the right structures in place as contained in the Banjul Plan of Action Nigeria and other countries would be able to know the actual numbers of stateless persons within it’s territories.
She added that the growing rate of insecurity in some member states also calls for the need to have a documentation of country’s nationals those that are stateless, IDPs and Refugees.
The Deputy Country Representative also called on member states to emulate the Cote d’Ivore which has successfully registered 700,000 stateless persons in the country.
Also speaking, Mrs Florence Iheme, the Director, Humanitarian and Social Affairs, ECOWAS Commission, said that ECOWAS remained committed to ending statelessness alongside governments of member states and UNHCR.
Iheme, who underscore the implications of statelessness if left ignored urged governments of member states and stakeholders to do all in its powers to ensure that the ten- year fight, 2014-2024 is being achieved.
“When the position was brought to ECOWAs in 2014, we embraced it immediately because some of the regional instruments we have is against statelessness.
“We have been working with the UNHCR since the 10-year fight, 2014 to 2024 was launched in November 2014.
“If you are stateless, you exist, but you have no human rights and that has implication on social issues, such as access to school, health care, and many other things.
“Member states have been working to ensure that implementation is ongoing.
“In Nigeria, we have ratified the two international instruments but to make any meaningful change.
“Apart from the legal provisions, you need to put structures in place to make sure that some of the programmes work,’’ Iheme said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Abidjan Declaration is a historical instrument and a milestone in the fight against statelessness in West Africa.
The Declaration was adopted during the first Ministerial Conference on Statelessness in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, jointly organized by ECOWAS and
UNHCR in February 2015.
The Abidjan Declaration recognizes that statelessness is a significant issue in the region and sets out 25 specific measures, primarily addressed to ECOWAS member states, on how to put an end to statelessness by 2024.
The conference also resulted in the adoption of 62 recommendations on how to implement the commitments made.
The Abidjan Declaration was endorsed by all Heads of States in May 2015 in Accra, Ghana, during the ECOWAS Summit.
The ECOWAS Plan of Action on Eradication of Statelessness 2017-2024 is based on the commitments and recommendations
made in the Abidjan Declaration, the Conclusions and Recommendations and in the Communiqué, and therefore strictly follows the spirit of Abidjan.
The Plan of Action entails support measures that ECOWAS and UNHCR can provide to member states in accordance with Articles 22 and 25 of the Abidjan Declaration.
It includes measures that ECOWAS will adopt to follow-up on the requests made by Member States in the Abidjan Declaration and it spells out mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of the Abidjan Declaration. (NAN)
LIZ/YEE
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Edited by Emmanuel Yashim