By Julie Ekong
As issues of social justice concerns continue to rise, organisations working on diverse areas of social justice in Nigeria have captured and documented their on-field and off-field experiences to support those who wishes to work in the social justice space.
The document which is in three parts, has Understanding Social Justice in Nigeria. This part sets a context for the social justice milieu in Nigeria and beyond. It gives the concept, background and principles of social justice and the legal framework in which social justice operates
Second is on Tools and Tactics for Effective Social Justice Advocacy, which looks at ways in which important steps can be employed to achieve results in Social Justice Advocacy and this includes, how to leverage on media advocacy, community organizing, advocacy in the most difficult terrain and ensure effective feedback mechanism and citizen engagement.
While the last one, final part is happed on Advancing Social Justice in Nigeria.
It deals with issues of bridging the gap and instilling confidence in social justice advocacy in Nigeria because it will address the problem of trust deficit between the Nigeria Police Force and citizens, using conflict-prone North East as a case study, while another chapter shares guidelines on how to advance social justice advocacy in Nigeria.
Unveiling the compendium of social learning Online, the Chief Executive Officer, Youth and Students Advocates for Development Initiative, YSAD, Mr Obinna Nwagbara said, despite the #EndSARS movement of 2020, violation of the rights of citizens are still on the increase adding that it is vital that more people are encouraged to join in the crusade.
Mr Nwagbara said, Since a perfect society is yet to evolve, social justice advocacy remained vital for changing the narrative in demanding a just and fair world where everyone has a voice and every voice matters.
He noted that the compendium of experiences whose interventions center on human rights abuses of Nigerians by law enforcement agencies, endeavour to showcase what has worked and what is possible.
In putting this together, each member organisation had something to write from the experiences gathered in the process of project implementation which was followed by a three – day stakeholder validation workshop.
” Voice Nigeria Social Justice Community of Practice, is a Civil Society Organisation, CSO, an innovative grant facility implemented by Oxfam in Nigeria, it is aimed at strengthening the ability and capacity of CSOs and representatives of the most marginalised groups; age and other related discriminated groups.
This CoP is facilitated by the Voice Linking and Learning facilitators – Cognito and NINE. The community is made up of some organisations that are grantee partners under the VOICE project “.
The workshop was organised in July, with stakeholders drawn from the National Human Rights Commission, the media, Nigeria Bar Association, law enforcement agencies, and other civil society organisations.
