Enjoy Your Rights This Season

What a season! Endless queues at fuel stations, black market sales in broad daylight and fuel sales in unauthorized and unsafe locations where a mistaken strike of a match stick can result in agonising infernos.
There is absolutely no reason why Nigerians and lovers of Nigeria residing among us should be subjected to this indignity, especially in a season of love and peace, at a time when the country is taking her place in the comity of nations.

Beloved Nigerians, there is no dignity, no love in subjecting fellow Nigerians to the indignity of endless long queues at fuel stations no matter the season. It is not only a flagrant abuse of our rights as a people called by the name, Nigeria, but it is also a way of telling the whole world how cruel we can be to one another.

Painfully, this is a conspiracy by both big and small fuel business owners to make quick money. How terribly disgusting and inhuman. This should not be allowed to continue. It is time we told ourselves some home truths about oppression at whatever levels and how it all boils down to the trampling of the peoples rights. It is sheer evil to hoard and deny fuel to the people whose taxes help subsidise the importation of the fuel that profits you.

A word they say is enough for the wise.

Safeguarding Women's Rights in the Home

Kudos to His Excellency, the Governor of Ondo State who acted speedily to ensure that the now deposed Deji of Akure did not go scot free after causing bodily damage to his wife of many years. Why and how spouses violate each other's rights in the home to the point of causing bodily still baffles rights advocates. More so when in some parts of the world, spousal violence especially against women is seen as a man taking his position in the home and disciplining an errant wife.

Considering that this is fifteen years after Beijing, and several countries including our very own as signatories to international instruments designed to protect women, one is amazed that a monarch would deign to cause his wife bodily harm. Though he has since been deposed and action is being taken against him, the truth is that his actions mirror to an extent the hidden dangers that many women face in marriage. Sadly, not many women are as empowered as the Olori who not only cried out for help but also knew who to contact for help.

At the commencement of this project, I received a call from a woman who wanted desperately to protect a friend of hers who was being abused physically by her husband. Glad that my organisation could do something by linking this woman to the relevant organisations that could assist her, we gave the friend who made the call the human rights hotline to give to her hurting friend to call. In spite of promising anonymity, she is yet to make the call.

Could it be fear and the perceived social stigma of addressing wrong spousal behavior for which she could be castigated by negative traditions, I have no idea. But as I write, my prayer is that she will learn from the massive support the Olori received even from fellow women and the government. Their actions go a long way to prove that spousal violence has never been and will never be anyone's culture.

Women, take advantage of the human rights violations reporting hotline and stay alive. The same advice goes to everyone whose right is being violated.

Participatory One-Day National Sensitization and Capacity Building Workshop

The participatory one-day national sensitization and capacity building workshop on the use of mobile phones and web 2.0 technologies for civil society campaigns and advocacy held on Thursday, 12 November 2009 at the Lagoon Hall of Mainland Hotel, Lagos.

Forty participants drawn from human rights organisations as well as the Media participated in the workshop

The folowing papers were presented aat the workshop

1. Web 2.0 Technologies for Civil Society and Media Organisations
2. Planning a Mobile Campaign
3. The Human Rights Hub

Funding

This project has been made possible by generous funding from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), Dakar, Senegal.

Resource Persons

Charles Osazuwa, Officer in-Charge, United Nations Information Centre, Lagos

Sokari Ekine            Author of the blog,  Black Looks

Ore Somolu, Director, Women's Technology Empowerment Centre, Lagos



Charles-Iyoha Christiana, Director, Centre for Policy and Development


Grace Avuaiara, Program Manager, ICTs, Centre for Policy and Development

Victims Speak

Victims of human rights violations are beginning to take advantage of the dedicated mobile line and short code to report violations. PolDeC  on its part is doing the linking up and following up on the cases reported. We will update you with follow-up reports on the cases and share identity of victims with permission

Dedicated Mobile Line

This mobile number, 07051149326 is dedicated  to:

1. Connecting victims of human rights violations to public agencies that redress human rights violation
2. Connecting victims of human rights violations to non-governmental organizaions involved in human rights advocacy
3. Connecting victims of human rights violations with organisations and individuals that provide free legal services
4. Providing and receiving information on human rights
5. Connecting human rights advoactes