By Doris Obinna
Civil Society Organizations (CSO) under the umbrella of Voice of Nigeria Social Justice Community of Practice has expressed worry over the increasing rate of Human Rights abuses across the country.
The group at a virtual meeting launched a Compendium of Learnings on Social Justice Community of Practice Learning, in commemoration of International Day of Human Rights.
According to the group, a perfect society is yet to evolve; one without poverty, war, hunger, oppression, mortality, inequality, gender exclusion and suchlike social justice issues. Due to this reality, social justice advocacy remain vital for changing the narrative in demanding a just and fair world where everyone has a voice and every voice matters.
Chief Executive Officer, Youth and Students Advocates for Development Initiative (YSAD), Obinna Nwagbara, emphasized the need for the material to provide as a learning tool that would increase the use of evidence-based interventions and guidance in the area of social injustice, especially regarding human Rights for those interested in advocacy and social justice.
“Despite the #2020 ENDSAR violence, violation of the rights of Nigerians is still on the increase and it’s important that more Nigerians are encouraged to move from bystanders to activists.
“This resource material is a compendium of experiences of voice granites especially those whose intervention centres on human rights abuses of Nigerians by law enforcement agencies. Each member organization has had something to write from the experiences garnered in the course of project implementation.
“This was followed by a 3- day stakeholder’s validation workshop in July. The stakeholders are the National Human Rights Commission, the media, the NBA, Law enforcement agencies, CSOs & NGOs.
Though there have been challenges in the process of gathering this material, but here we are today, launching it as a resource material. We must be proud of it. Though we planned to launch it in August during the international Youth Day but little did we know that the material has a plan of its own,” he stressed.