Motion 2: Misuse of counter terrorism laws

Motion: The OCB Gathering urgently calls on MSF to develop a public position on the misuse of counter-terrorism laws around the world in order to ensure that we can access populations impacted by conflict and maintain our core principles of impartiality, neutrality and independence. MSF calls on all states to ensure that counter terrorism objectives do not hinder access to humanitarian aid for all that need it and full implementation of IHL they are signatory to.

 


Background and explanation: The Nigeria Mission has witnessed countless incidents of abuse and the misuse of national counter-terrorism laws via the current conflict in the north-east and other parts of the country. In north-east Nigeria the movement struggles to operate in all areas of the conflict; in particular MSF cannot access communities located in Armed Opposition (AO) areas and only has the ability to work in government-controlled zones. The Nigerian Government has classified the conflict as terrorism, which in turn alters humanitarian access to both sides of the conflict.

These actions have consistently impeded MSF ability to undertake effective operations, prohibited access to populations impacted by conflict, criminalized aid and have often been in direct contradiction with International Humanitarian Law (IHL); of which Nigeria is a signatory. The interpretation of terrorism applied in this instance is incorrect; according to IHL it is a misappropriation of the term. It is also important to consider the global impact of this issue. The issue is not only restricted to Nigeria, it also exists in other countries where rural insurgencies are routinely qualified as terrorist actions. If there continues to be no action taken by the international community when counter terrorist laws are used to impede the impartial provision of humanitarian aid to those who need it, we cannot estimate how many thousands of people will continue to suffer from lack of care.

Nigeria Mission Intersectional FAD