Avocats Sans Frontières France (ASF France), in collaboration with its local partners, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and the Carmelite Prisoners Interest Organization held a training on human rights for security agencies and a series of advocacy visits in Lagos State as part of its fourth mission to Lagos State.
The activities were implemented on the platform of the European Union and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) co-funded “Strengthening the National Actors Capacities and Advocation for Ending Severe Human Rights Violations in Nigeria project” (SAFE) project designed to address human rights violations of torture, extra-judicial killings and arbitrary detention.
The training for security agencies which was held penultimate week, was aimed at improving the knowledge of security agencies on human rights laws and standards. It had in attendance 25 security personnel drawn from the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), the Department of State Security (DSS), Nigerian Airforce (NAF), Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Corrections Service (NCS), and the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The training also focused on consolidating the knowledge gains of the first, second and third training on human rights for security agencies in Lagos State. Modus operandi of security agencies were examined with respect to human rights laws and standards. Addressing the media at the opening session of the training, the Country Director of ASF France, Angela Uwandu Uzoma-Iwuchukwu emphasized the import of the training and other interventions of the SAFE project saying, “this training is one of the effective ways to build the capacity of the security agencies to respect human rights. We also believe strongly in supporting victims and promoting accountability for human rights violations. This is why we provide training to build the capacity of security agencies on one hand, and on the other hand, we support victims through the provision of pro-bono legal aid”.
The Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Lagos Branch, Mr. Bartholomew Aguegbodo while also stressing the importance of the training said, “this training is a very welcome development because it cuts across a wide array of security agencies, and it is coming at a time when it is really needed based on the current state of human rights in the country”.
It said so far, 227 security personnel have been trained on the project since its inception in June 2019.
Prior to the human rights training for security agencies, Avocats Sans Frontières France and the project partners engaged in advocacy visits to key stakeholders in Lagos State. This took place on the 25th and 26th of July 2022.
The series of advocacy visits included visits to; the Lagos state office of the National Human Rights Commission, the Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja branch, Lagos State and the P.RO of the Nigeria Police Force, Lagos Command.
The visits served as an avenue to update the key stakeholders on the progress of the implementation of the SAFE project and reiterate the need for continued partnership and synergy between all the human rights stakeholders to fully achieve the goals of the project, which is to end human rights violations of torture, extra-judicial killings and arbitrary detention in Nigeria.
