Amnesty International trains 150 Nigerian human rights volunteers

Amnesty International, a human rights organisation, has trained 150 human rights volunteers in Nigeria to build their capacity to mobilise for human rights advocacy within their communities.

The Country Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, made this known at the training tagged: “In Conversation with Amnesty International Nigeria,” on Saturday in Abuja.

The training with the theme: “Mobilising for Impact; Building a Unified Force for Human Rights Advocacy,” was designed to strengthen and empower a network of dedicated volunteers.

Mr Sanusi said the gathering brought together volunteers to engage, discuss, learn and debate on the future of human rights in Nigeria.

According to him, Nigeria is still experiencing some human rights challenges and all hands must be on deck to address them.

“I implore you to engage each other, discuss, debate and brainstorm on how we can build a movement across all the 36 states and the FCT.

“This is so that whenever the need arises, we can use our number to seek change, do solidarity and show that we are not just a few people in one part of Nigeria,” he said.

Barbara Magaji, the organisation’s programme manager, described Amnesty International as a global movement of over 10 million people in over 155 countries, working to promote the rights of people.

“We work to ensure that human rights are protected and that the Universal Declaration and other human rights instruments that have been signed by different countries are adhered to.

“Today, we are engaging volunteers and supporters in Nigeria to ensure the work they do reaches the voiceless in communities looking at their rights being violated, whether by individuals, state actors or non-state actors.

“It also includes issues around freedom of expression, assembly, pushing for the rights of people, pushing to ensure that people are able to freely express themselves,” she said.

Mr Magaji said that the organisation also ensured that people were not arrested and detained unduly, stressing that they have constitutional rights to only be detained within a time frame of 24 to 48 hours.

She added that the organisation was working toward ensuring that vulnerable people like children and women continued to enjoy their rights as citizens or as people who reside within Nigeria.

The Activism and Growth Assistant for the group, Anne Chukwunwike, said Amnesty International, engaged the volunteers, especially in campaigns at the grassroots.

“The expectation from this event is that we create a more vibrant community.

“We also want to launch a national platform, where everyone who is interested in joining the platform is able to keep abreast,” she said.

Ms Chukwunwike said the programme would also afford them the opportunity to identify the key initiatives or projects that they would want to do at the state level.

She said they would also want to key it into what Amnesty International was doing at the national level.

One of the participants, Benjamin Wellington, said he learnt a lot about human rights, adding that it would help him to carry out advocacies on human rights.

“Defending human rights is just something that we cannot shy away from.

“We have to give it our best and this engagement has built my capacity to do more,” he said

(NAN)