Amnesty International/OSIWA train CSOs on Human Rights in Northern Nigeria

Amnesty International/OSIWA train CSOs on Human Rights in Northern Nigeria

AREWA AGENDA – Human rights organisation, Amnesty International (AI) has commenced training individuals and organisations in Northern Nigeria on detecting and reporting human rights violations.

The training is also being supported by funding from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

The first leg of the training, which was held at The Summit Hotel in Damaturu, Yobe State, brought together participants from states in the North-east including Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Gombe and Bauchi.

Participants from Plateau State in the North Central region, also took part in the training.

During the two-day training, participants were trained on how to identify generic human rights issues in the northern region of the country and proffer ways of mitigating such practices.

While giving an overview of the project, the coordinator of the training, Bash Olasupo, said the need for civil societies to engage people in authority, especially the security agents and how ought to handle people decently, is important to change the narrative and the culture of silence among the people at the community level.

He noted that the rights of the people in democratic societies and what they must enjoy from the government cannot be negotiated.

However, he expressed regrets that the insecurity in the region has deepened rights violations. He said the time is right for such rights violations to get the attention they deserve, and that civil societies and human rights advocates should lead the campaign against them.

“With the coming of democracy, the expectation had been that the civic space will open up and civil society organisations will be able to occupy the space and advocate more for the protection of human rights and for the dividends of democracy etc for the people.

Unfortunately, the insecurity in the northern part of the country came and so that space, even if it was created, there was no attention about trying to occupy that space and along the line, the policymakers were also concentrating on trying to manage the violent conflict orchestrated by the protracted insurgency also have been coming up with policies and statement that ordinarily were meant to protect the citizen.

“But proper scrutiny will also see the type of inconveniences that those scrutinies create for people and the violation of human rights.

“But because we are dealing with violence, nobody seems to be paying attention but we decided that there is a need to start dealing with that shrinking space by capacitating the human rights groups, individuals and organizations to build their capacities so as to advocate more for the respect of human rights issues in northern Nigeria.

“If you see through the issues, there are cultural and religious issues that also prevent having a robust human right movement or effort in the northern part of the country. But there are particular issues like the condition of the IDPs.

“Though there are IDPs in other parts of the country where it’s a widespread thing like sexual exploitation at the camps, inhuman treatment of people, exposure of young girls, maltreatment of people at checkpoints, education has become a secondary thing, early child marriage, rape etc.

“So, gradually, as the insurgency is going down, we feel that it is the right time to start in earnest to address some of these things so that the wrongs of the past can be easily corrected. That is the basis of this training and it’s going to continue for the other states of the north. We want to stop the culture of business as usual,” Mr Bash said.

Participants at the training were excited at the knowledge gap that was bridged within the two days of the training.

“This training is very educative and it serves as an eye opener for the newcomers and will also strengthen the knowledge of some of us that have been in the business for a long and foster a stronger synergy with stakeholders in the human right circle for a better relationship,” Dogo Saje Ngare, one of the participants, said.

The training will continue with other northern states of Nigeria in a few weeks.

Credit: Premium Times