Two organs of the United Nations (UN) have denounced an ultimatum issued
\nby members of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum for demanding that Igbo
\nresident in all parts of northern Nigeria vacate the area by October 1,
\n2017. The two UN bodies also condemned death threats targeting members of
\nNigeria\u2019s Igbo ethnicity.<\/p>\n
On June 6, 2017, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum issued the ultimatum
\nat a press conference in Kaduna, capital of Kaduna State. Despite calls by
\nGovernor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna for the arrest of those who issued the
\nultimatum, the police and other security agencies declined to act.<\/p>\n
Last week, the Arewa Youth Forum formally withdrew the ultimatum, with
\nsome of its members citing pressure from President Muhammadu Buhari for
\ntheir soft-pedaling.<\/p>\n
However, in a statement released in Geneva, Switzerland on August 25,
\n2017, the office of the UN Human Rights described the ultimatum to the
\nIgbo to flee the north as a matter of \u201cgrave concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UN experts who issued the report on the plight of the Igbo also voiced The experts urged the Nigerian government to \u201cbe vigilant, as hate speech After noting that some local and national officials, as well as media The UN also demanded an official investigation of those behind the The UN experts who authored the statement included Mr. Mutuma Ruteere, Following the UN experts\u2019 report, the Committee on the Elimination of The Committee decried \u201creports that other local elders and leaders have The UN body drew attention to Nigeria\u2019s membership of the Economic The UN body recommended that Nigeria \u201ctake immediate action to stop and The UN Committee urged Nigeria to \u201censure the protection of all its It finally called on \u201call local and national authorities in Nigeria to According to the Committee, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Two organs of the United Nations (UN) have denounced an ultimatum issued by members of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum for demanding that Igbo resident in all parts of northern…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nconcerns over an anti-Igbo hate song and audio message that had gone viral
\non social media. The hateful message, which is spoken in Hausa, encourages
\nnortherners to destroy Igbo property in the north and kill Igbo who fail
\nto leave by\u00a0October 1<\/span><\/span>. The UN experts said they were \u201cgravely concerned
\nabout this proliferation of hate messages and incitement to violence
\nagainst the Igbo and their property, especially considering the previous
\nhistory of such violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nand incitement can endanger social cohesion and threaten peace by
\ndeepening the existing tensions between Nigeria\u2019s ethnic communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nreps, had condemned the ultimatum, the UN experts said they were worried
\nby some officials\u2019 silence. \u201cWe are deeply concerned that some prominent
\nlocal leaders and elders have not condemned the ultimatum, hate speech,
\nand the perpetrators,\u201d said the UN statement. It added: \u201cWe call on the
\nGovernment, media and civil society representatives, and local and
\nreligious leaders, to reject and condemn hate speech and incitement to
\nviolence unequivocally and in the strongest possible terms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nincitement to violence in order to unmask the perpetrators for prosecution
\nand punishment. According to the UN, those to be identified must include
\n\u201cthe people behind the ultimatum and those responsible for the creation,
\npublication, and circulation of the hate song and audio message.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nSpecial Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination,
\nxenophobia and related intolerance, Mr. Fernand de Varennes, Special
\nRapporteur on minority issues, and Ms. Anastasia Crickley, Chairperson of
\nthe Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.<\/p>\n
\nRacial Discrimination held its 93rd session between July 31 and August 25,
\n2017. Acting under its \u201cEarly Warning and Urgent Action Procedure,\u201d the
\nCommittee said it was deeply concerned \u201cby the rise of racist hate speech
\nand incitement to violence against the Igbo people, including through the
\nrecording and wide distribution of a song and audio message in Hausa
\nlanguage which describe the Igbos in hateful and derogatory terms.\u201d It
\nadded that the Committee was \u201cAlarmed by the public ultimatum issued by a
\nnumber of northern youth groups, forums, and coalitions on 6 June 2017
\ncalling all Igbos in northern Nigeria to leave their homes by 1 October
\n2017,\u201d noting that the ultimatum \u201cmay have been recently withdrawn.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nendorsed the ultimatum and expressed their support for such racist hate
\nspeech targeting and threatening the Igbos,\u201d adding that it was \u201cdeeply
\nworried by the information that some Igbo families have already started
\nmoving out from their villages and homes in northern Nigeria to avoid any
\npossible harm to their personal integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nCommunity of West African States (ECOWAS) and of the African Union as well
\nas a State party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. It
\nstated that Nigeria must \u201cincrease its efforts in systematically rejecting
\nand condemning, including by high-level and local public officials and
\nleaders, any form of racist hate speech, incitement to hatred and
\nviolence, and the dissemination of ideas of ethnic superiority.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nprevent the continued circulation and dissemination of the hateful song
\nand audio message mentioned above,\u201d and \u201cto exercise due diligence to
\nhalt, prevent and investigate acts of racist hate speech and incitement to
\nhatred and violence against the Igbo people, in accordance with
\ninternational human rights standards, with a view to bringing perpetrators
\nto justice, punishing them adequately if convicted, and compensating
\nvictims.\u201d<\/p>\n
\ncitizens from ethnic hatred, and take effective measures to ensure that
\nIgbo people can fully exercise their rights stipulated in the Convention,
\nincluding the right to security of person and protection against violence
\nor bodily harm, the right to freedom of movement and residence, and the
\nright to own property.\u201d<\/p>\n
\npromptly and firmly address the underlying causes of the ethnic tensions
\nin Nigeria, with a view to avoiding repeated ethnic-based violence, and to
\npromote intercultural dialogue between different ethnic groups based on
\ndiversity, respect, and inclusiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nRights had been mandated \u201cto draw the attention of the Economic Community
\nof West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union to the human rights
\nsituation of the Igbo in northern Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"