Towards the Evolution of Right to Reparation for Loss of Housing and Property of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS) in Nigeria

Abstract

During internal conflicts, displaced victims are confronted with wide range of physical and psychological trauma to their persons coupled with loss of their homes and other life time investments. Relocating these victims to safe place (IDPs camps) alone will be far from given them much touted hope for returning to normal lives. At the international level, there is a growing recognition of the significance of extending reparation (which comprises of restitution, relocation, reintegration and compensation) to internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as means of assuaging the impact of wrongful acts committed against them in accordance with the time honoured legal aphorism – ubi jus ibi remedium which means where there is a wrong there must be a remedy. In Nigeria, owing to multiple factors compensating victims for loss of homes and other tangible properties in particular is yet to arouse the needed attention that it deserves as government primary attention has continually been overwhelmed by the need to provide immediate succour. This article as a conceptual discourse attempt to x-ray the various context that reparation can be gauged for internally displaced persons arising from recurring internal crisis in Nigeria. The paper concludes that beyond the traditional reparation sufficiently entrenched in applicable international, regional and domestic regimes, namely provision of temporal shelters and other humanitarian needs, an intervention that can hardly approximate to reparation capable of enthroning durable solution for internally displaced persons (IDPs), there is an imperative need for a new twist that recognizes the importance of reparation for movable and immovable properties lost in the heat of internal crisis. This article is significant as it contributes conceptually to the untiring search for durable solutions by government, policy makers and relevant stakeholders as a way of engendering enduring protection and assistance for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3p380