The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has urged ECOWAS member states to strengthen modalities to facilitate the implementation of treaties on international humanitarian law (IHL).
Mr Eloi Fillion, Head of Delegation, ICRC Nigeria made the call at the ECOWAS-ICRC Annual Review Meeting on the Implementation of IHL Treaties in West Africa in Abuja on Tuesday.
IHL is a set of rules which seek to limit the effects of armed conflict for humanitarian reasons, protects persons no longer participating in the hostilities and restricts the means and methods of warfare.
IHL is also known as the law of war or the law of armed conflict.
Fillion explained that ratification of IHL treaties by member states was crucial to implementing them.
“In many countries, national judges never apply international law unless it has been translated into national law.
“Therefore, for the rules to be fully effective, states must also adapt their respective national law to conform to the treaty, or enact a new domestic legislation explicitly incorporating the treaty.”
He added that the main objective of the meeting was to continually strengthen expertise and knowledge in IHL to improve coordination among stakeholders.
In her address, Dr Fatimata Dia Sow, ECOWAS Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender said that both organisations were working to promote the domestication of and respect for IHL treaties in the sub-region.
Dia Sow was represented by the Director, Gender Development, Youth, Sports, Civil Society, Employment and Drug Control, Mrs Sintiki Ugbe.
She said that a number of “modest successes” in the implementation of the treaties had, however, been recorded.
“Over the past years, the targets within the ECOWAS IHL Plan of Action have been distilled into an Annual Reporting Questionnaire as a tool to measure member states’ progression with respect to IHL.”
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami said that Nigeria had, in 2010, set up a National Committee on the implementation of the IHL.
Malami was represented by Mrs Stella Anukam, Director, International and Comparative Law Department.
He recalled that Nigeria had domesticated the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 which he said had remained part of the country’s national laws.
The ECOWAS-ICRC review meeting would focus on measures undertaken by member states in implementing IHL treaties in the past one year . (NAN)
TOP/SH
=======
Leave a Reply