ActionAid Nigeria releases report on human rights defenders

Philip Clement, ABUJA

ActionAid Nigeria has released its five months research report on human rights defenders, which is a critical component of the Women led integrated protection services against Gender Based Violence (GBV) in Nigeria.

Speaking during the adoption of the report in Abuja recently, the country director of ActionAid Nigeria, Mrs Ene Obi attributed the problem of human rights in Nigeria to lack of synergy between relevant stakeholders to ensure punishments for perpetrators.

According to her, “The report captures a litany of how Human Rights Defenders (HDRs) also face violations and harassments mostly by state actors and the way forward,”

Speaking further, Mrs Obi stated that the report will make salient recommendations on the way forward in a bid to curtail challenges faced by both human rights victims and defenders.

In her remarks, the permanent secretary of the ministry of women affairs, Dr. Anthonia Ekpa said her expectations from the findings and recommendations of the research will he how it will tackle the problem of human rights in the country.

“ActionAid has done a good job with this research especially in the area of data gathering.

As such, we at the ministry of women affairs be is that the research should have pointers to the causes of the challenges of Human Rights Defenders as well as socio-political impact it has.

“Also, we expect that from the recommendations of the report, we will have a clear cut directions on how to aid protect HDRs who sometimes also face some sort of intimidation in the country.

“We are willing to collaborate with all stakeholders, the Civil society and the media in promoting the rights of all citizens in the country,”

Commenting on the project, the project manager, Mrs. Nkechi Ilochi-Omekedo said the five months project was funded by the foreign common wealth and development Office of the UK government.

Speaking to Daily Times, she said “The project covered three states of Niger, Edo and Adamawa to provide critical protection for women that suffer GBV

“However, a critical component was evidence based research where we set out to find out what happens to Human Rights Defenders, the challenges they face as well as providing useful recommendations.

“As such research was carried out in 12 states including the FCT which gives it a national outlook where we interviewed HDRs. Interestingly, the research was ongoing during the EndSars protest so we premised a component of the research around the protest,”

On stakeholder engagements, Mrs. Ilochi-Omekedo stated that the research carried along state actors including the federal ministry of women affairs, the National Human Rights Commission, Civil Society Organization’s as well as the academia to involve academics who teach gender studies in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

Speaking further, she added that “The report captures data on human rights defenders and will provide a policy brief and recommendations for legislative actions and how Human rights defenders can also be protected from all forms of intimidation and harm.

Also speaking, the project Coordinator, Mrs. Vanessa Edhebru said during the research, 1,133 persons were contacted directly while over 800 were reached via mass media platforms.

She added that 332 persons were provided protection kits and services as part of the women led integration protection services against Gender Based Violence.

According to Mrs. Edhebru, “The project beyond offering protection services had a deep investigation to unravel the challenges of Human rights defenders and also efforts to support the fight against Gender Based Violence,”

She added that the findings and recommendations will serve as a turning point for support and legislative actions as well as mobilization in protecting human rights defenders across the country.