Past Event

On October 19, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) invited the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to brief it on humanitarian matters.  The ICRC’s President presented a new report on the “operationalisation” of the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (the Kampala Convention).  This report is part of a larger stocktaking exercise by the ICRC on the Kampala Convention.  It contains findings including good practices and 25 recommendations based on input from ICRC delegations across Africa, combined together with supporting research and consultations within the ICRC and key stakeholders including AU Member States.

The report was prepared as a tool to assist AU Member States, the African Union Commission and other actors in further realising the promise of the Kampala Convention.  It identifies specific actions to be taken to better prevent and respond to internal displacement.  As the first regional treaty on internal displacement, the Kampala Convention holds great potential to make a practical difference in the lives of millions of IDPs in Africa and is being watched globally.

Come join in an informal discussion with Robert Young, Halima Sogbesan, and Kayode Ogundamisi..  Share your views on how this report and the Kampala Convention fit into the complex dynamics of internal displacement in Africa, with a particular focus on Nigeria.

Introduction: Andrew Carswell, Senior Delegate for Canada, ICRC

Moderator:    Blair Rutherford, professor, Carleton University

Panelists:

Robert Young (B.A. Queen’s, LL.B. magna cum laude, Ottawa) is the consultant who drafted the ICRC report, and recently briefed and consulted AU Member States at the AU HQ in Addis Ababa. Robert is an international lawyer (Ontario Bar, 1995) and humanitarian protection specialist.  He was a long-time ICRC Delegate, including as Protection Delegate in Ethiopia, Regional Legal Adviser based in Abidjan, Côte D’Ivoire, and Deputy Head of Delegation & Legal Adviser at the ICRC Permanent Observer Mission to the UN in New York.  He has been a legal adviser at Global Affairs Canada and a Senior Adviser for Conflict Dynamics International.

Halima Sogbesan (B.Sc. Communications and Multimedia, American University of Nigeria) is a Nigerian student in her final year of the Master of Journalism program at Carleton University. She spent the summer of 2016 in Adamawa state, North Eastern Nigeria, interviewing women who have returned home from Boko Haram captivity, about their experiences with rehabilitation. She has written for the Ottawa Sun, Premium Times and Nigeria’s The Nation newspaper. She was editor of The Siren, the student newspaper at the American University of Nigeria. She has also worked with Farm Radio International Ghana as a communications officer and ActionAid Nigeria as a governance consultant.

Kayode Ogundamisi (B.Sc. Political Science, University of Jos, M.Public Administration, Ogun State University, M. International Relations, London Metropolitan University) is a commentator on Nigerian and international affairs. He currently shuttles between his base in The United Kingdom and his country of birth, Nigeria. He is the convener of the Liberty Forum UK and is involved in engaging local immigrant communities in the UK for social empowerment and was  appointed by the UK government as a board member of the United Kingdom Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), a position he held for 3 years. Since 2013, Ogundamisi has been involved extensively with IDP activism in Nigeria and has visited Boko Haram IDPs in Borno state and other parts of the north. His work on IDPs culminated in his acclaimed documentary, Coping with Boko Haram, which earned him an invitation by the office of the Vice President to serve on various IDP stakeholders initiative coordinated by the Nigerian presidency. Ogundamisi is very active on the social media and has 219 thousand followers on Twitter.

For event poster, click here