Archived page: may contain outdated information!

Nigeria: Legal experts compare international humanitarian law and Nigerian legislation

19-11-2013 News Release

Abuja (ICRC) – A three-day workshop on international humanitarian law organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in cooperation with Nigeria's defence headquarters opens today in Abuja.

"An ICRC legal adviser and 30 other legal experts will examine the extent to which Nigerian military and common laws have incorporated elements of the instruments of international humanitarian law that Nigeria is party to," said Beat Mosimann, deputy head of the ICRC delegation in Abuja.

The participants include members of the Nigeria Bar Association, military legal advisers, members of an inter-ministerial committee advising the federal government on international humanitarian law, and academics from four of the 20 universities in the country teaching this field of law.

International humanitarian law is a set of rules which seek, for humanitarian reasons, to limit the effects of armed conflict. It protects persons not, or no longer, participating in hostilities and restricts the means and methods of warfare. The main treaties of international humanitarian law are the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, ratified by Nigeria in 1961, and their two Additional Protocols of 1977, ratified by Nigeria in 1988.
 

For further information, please contact:
Aleksandra Matijevic Mosimann, ICRC Abuja, tel: +234 9 461 96 13 or +234 703 595 41 68