The Charter of Rights and Charter of Demands present the range of human rights that IDPs are entitled to, as well as, reiterate the demands by workers to safe, decent and dignified conditions in order to deliver quality public services to IDPs and their host communities. The Charters serve as a tool for advocacy on IDP rights and as a basis for demanding decent work, safety and dignity for all frontline workers.
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Who are IDPs and why are they vulnerable?
Internally displaced persons are individuals or groups of people who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.
IDPs remain particularly vulnerable because they may be forced towards unhealthy or inhospitable environments or may face other circumstances that make them especially vulnerable. In many instances, family groups may be separated, women may be forced to assume non-traditional roles or face particular vulnerabilities, and children, the elderly, or pregnant women may experience profound psychosocial distress. Removal from sources of income, livelihood or loss of jobs may likewise add to the physical and psychosocial vulnerability for displaced people.
Further to this, schooling for children and adolescents may be disrupted. There could arise issues, such as language barriers in their location of displacement, at the same time, suspicions of, or abuse by, armed combatants or other parties to the conflict.
Why this Trade Union Charter of Rights and Charter of Demands?
The Charter of Rights and Charter of Demands for IDPs and Quality Public Services have been developed through a series of multi-stakeholder dialogue led by Public Services International (PSI) and its affiliates in the health and social care sector, namely, the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) and the Medical and Health Workers Union (MHWUN), as the trade union response to the situation of internal displacement in Nigeria. Internal displacement caused by conflict and climate disasters continues to be one of the pressing issues that the country faces. Health and social care workers, along with other frontline actors delivering emergency response and humanitarian services play a key role in delivering services to IDPs and host communities. However, oftentimes they work in dangerous and difficult conditions. Many are themselves displaced along with their families. Others have lost their lives or properties, with no access to compensation as they lack social protection.
This publication was made possible through the support of ASSR and Union to Union through the PSI project on Building Trade Union Capacity to Defend the Human Rights of IDPs to Quality Public Services In Nigeria.