By Kebba AF Touray
The African Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS) has commenced a three-day forum for non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The forum is to engage NGOs on their participation in the forthcoming 81st Ordinary Session of the ACHPR, slated to commence from Thursday, 17 October to 6 November 2024, in the Gambian capital Banjul. Being held ahead of the 81st Ordinary Session of the ACHPR, the forum aims to foster collaboration within NGOs, the Commission, and the Center for the Promotion of Human Rights in Africa.
Hon. Justice Solomy Bossa, Chairperson of the Governing Council of ACDHRS, commended both the center and partner NGOs for the instrumental roles they continue to play in the realization, promotion, and protection of human rights in Africa. She said the work requires determination, commitment, and perseverance because it entails collaborative efforts with individuals, organizations, and governments to make an impact.
She added that by optimally deploying mega resources to seminars, workshops, and research to provide documentation and publication, and by focusing on contemporary human rights issues, the center has realized the vision of its founders in promoting cooperation with other African and international institutions and observers of human and people’s rights and democratic principles. She implored the respective governments in Africa not to derail NGOs and not to view them as detractors, because their work entails exposing gaps and shortcomings in the enforcement of human rights, as well as in identifying areas that need improvement, and sometimes by stepping in to fill in the gaps.
Foluso Adegalu, a representative of the Network of African National Human Rights Institution (NANHRI), said education is key to fostering meaningful participation in economic development, particularly within frameworks such as the Africa Continental Free Trade (ACFT). He said through human rights education, individuals can be equipped with the knowledge necessary to advocate for equitable access to the benefits of the ACFT area. He went on to state that by emphasizing human rights on the continent, they would ensure that marginalized communities are not left behind in the distribution of economic property indices. As a network, he said they would always emphasize the critical role that national human rights institutions play in advancing and promoting human rights and accountability.
Dabasaki Mac-Ikemenjima from Ford Foundation and a representative of the partners of ACDHRS said the continent is in a moment of urgency. He said the work they do now is more critical and important than at any other time in the history of the region.
“The region faces many challenges such as economic, political, security and social. This moment requires us to rethink, re-adjust, and re-imagine the way we do our work,” he pointed out.
Some of these challenges, he added, include the trend of democratic backsliding, the closing of civil space, and rising taxation within states in the region.
“As we know, our region faces an increasing trend of military overthrows. In West Africa alone, we have four countries that are currently under military rule, and there have been attempts at overthrowing a civilian government in several countries, that have not been successful. These moments require their re-thinking of our strategies and approaches to address issues of human rights on the continent,” he said.
Hon. Justice Raymond Sock, former Executive Director of the Center, said in pursuit of their objective, they have over the years physically considered issues that are of critical relevance to the situation of human rights in Africa. One such issue he said is on the theme called: ‘‘Year of Education: Educate an Africa fit for the 21st Century: Building Resilient Education Systems for Increased Access to Inclusive, Lifelong Quality and Relevant Learning in Africa.” The forum he said is a continuation of the discussion preceding the 79th Ordinary Session of the Africa Commission in May 2024. He said the UN General Assembly on the 19th of December 2011, adopted the declaration on human rights education which said human rights education should be available, accessible, acceptable, and of good quality.
