The Executive Director of the Building Blocks for Peace Foundation (BBFORPEACE), Mr. Rafiu Lawal, has called for legislative and judicial reviews of repressive laws across West Africa as part of initiatives to address the region’s shrinking civic space.
He made the call during a Two-Day Training of Trainers on ‘Community Organising, Mobilising and Non-Violent Civil Resistance in West Africa’, which was held in Abuja, Nigeria, on August 12th and 13th, 2024, in collaboration with the Karibu Foundation, the Action Group on Free Civic Space, and GPPAC West Africa.
Mr Lawal noted that existing laws that do not preserve human dignity and conform with the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights should be scrapped. These laws empower States to shrink civic and digital spaces and particularly violate the rights of young people.
The Training of Trainers, which brought together 24 youth organisations and activists from across five West African countries, such as Ghana, Côte D’Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo, examined the state, trends, and future of civic space in West Africa and developed non-violent responses to halt the plethora of attacks and violations of young people’s rights and well-being.
Mr Lawal noted that both democratic and undemocratic governments across West Africa have expanded law enforcement powers to curb insecurity.
These expansions have provoked an overflow of intended and unintended consequences leading to a surge in arrests and detention of activists and journalists, use of deadly force to disperse civil demonstrations, censorship of free speech, internet restrictions, proscription of religious and ethnic agitators, designation of dissenters as terrorist groups.
The Commissioner for ECOWAS Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security, who Dr. Brown Odigie represented, appreciated Building Blocks for Peace Foundation for going beyond Nigeria in implementing the project to engage other youth from across West African nations to address one of the challenges confronting the region jointly.
According to him, the civic space is under pressure across West Africa. ECOWAS supports the peaceful engagement of young people to demand accountability, good governance and more accessible civic space across the region.
The training was formally declared open by the Director General of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, whom Dr Mamman represented. During his remarks, Dr Mamman encouraged the participants to continue imitating the culture of peace and non-violence. He always charged young people to be good ambassadors of West Africa and speak well about the region.
Some of the training sessions during the training included Leading Effective Non-Violent Protests and Demonstrations, National, Regional, and Global Frameworks for Addressing Human Rights and Civic Space Violations in West Africa, Social Movements and Resistance in Africa: The Case of Nigeria, Senegal, and Kenya, Organisational Governance and Regulatory Compliance and Resource Mobilisation and Organisational Financial Resilience.
