Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to “reverse the recently announced policy of zero compensation for victims of Boko Haram attacks.”
In an appeal by its Executive Director, Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, the group urged the government to “within 14 days announce compensation and reparation policies for victims of attacks by Boko Haram, and begin a process of establishing mechanisms for the effective and transparent implementation of such policies.”
The group threatened to take “all necessary legal actions nationally and internationally to compel the government to fulfill its international human rights obligations and commitments,” if the government does not comply with its appeal.
The group said: “In the wake of the devastation by Boko Haram, compensation and reparation programmes are absolutely essential to deliver justice to the victims of human rights abuses precipitated by the group. Paying compensation and reparation to victims of human rights abuses by Boko Haram is a matter of rights and not charity. Refusing or failing to pay adequate compensation and reparation to victims is to buy impunity for perpetrators.”
“SERAP is seriously concerned about the policy of your government that there will be no compensation paid to victims of Boko Haram attacks. This policy is a clear violation of the country’s international human rights obligations and commitments to provide effective remedies, including compensation and reparation to victims of serious human rights abuses such as those perpetrated by Boko Haram.
“The attacks against innocent citizens by the Boko Haram constitute gross violations of international human rights law, having being systematically perpetrated, and affecting in qualitative and quantitative terms, the most basic rights of human beings, notably the right to life and the right to physical and moral integrity of the human person,” SERAP added.
