Finally a Rapporteur for Refugees in Africa

Refugee Rights News
Volume 1, Issue 1
October 2004

Years of painstaking appeals finally bore fruit at the last African Commission of Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) session in the Gambian capital Banjul in June 2004 with the appointment of the first special Rapporteur for refugees and IDPs in Africa—Commissioner Tom Nyanduga.

The Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons, Francis Deng welcomed Nyanduga’s appointment, cautioning at the same time that the Rapporteur faced enormous challenges. Africa is the continent most affected by forcible displacement, with almost 13 million internally displaced persons—out of a global total of 25 million—and over three million refugees, many of whom suffer from the most acute violations of human rights.

At numerous sessions of the Commission the Senegalese human rights NGO, RADDHO, Interights, Human Rights First, and WARIPNET had kept the fire burning, urging on the Commission the importance of having a Special Rapporteur for forced migrants on the African continent. Signs of good things to come began in November 2003 when renowned Tanzanian human rights lawyer Tom Bahame Nyaduga was appointed a Commissioner. At his first sitting as a Commissioner, Nyanduga was appointed a focal person for refugees and IDPs. At his second sitting he was appointed a Special Rapporteur.

It was the culmination of a long process. This is not to say that the ACHPR has ignored the plight of refugees—far from it—many of the Commissioners involved in other human rights concerns that beleaguer the continent had also included the refugee perspective in their work.

Upon his appointment as the focal person for refugees and IDPs, Commisioner Nyanduga took the bold step of consulting with NGOs working on the rights of the displaced. Discussions are ongoing between the Commission, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and NGOs on how best to place the issues of forced migrants at the core of the work of the Commission.

More recently, Commissioner Nyanduga was tasked with a mission in the Darfur region of western Sudan to assess the violations of the displaced in a conflict that has been described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Fighting between rebel groups and the government of Sudan and aligned militias began in the region in February 2003 and savage violence and massive displacement have been the result. (Please read more in the article The Crisis in Darfur: How much more do we know?)

In addition to Commissioner Nyanduga, the ACHPR delegation to Sudan included the Chairperson of the ACHPR, Salamata Sawadogo, the Special Rapporteur on Women's Rights in Africa, Angela Mero and Mohamed Abdellahi Ould Babana, Commissioner in charge of promotional activities in the Republic of Sudan.

The Commissioners’ report on Darfur at the third extra-ordinary session of the African Commission in Pretoria mid-September was the first comprehensive African Union human rights assessment of the human rights violations situation in the Darfur region. The report was adopted by the session and is awaiting comments from the government of Sudan. We eagerly await its publication.