By: Asako-ita, Victoria. Kalu, Peace & Abiamowei, Tarila.
Amnesty International Nigeria converged on Monty Suit, Calabar on Tuesday 24th October 2023 for actionable plans with Civil Society Organisations in Cross River State and some selected media personalities to campaign against victimisation and abuses of human rights.
The Country Director, Isa Sanusi said the essence of the meeting is to partner with CSOs to come up with an actionable plan to proffer solutions to the mirage of human rights abuses in the State and plead for public support towards AIN campaigns.
Amnesty International according to Sanusi is a research Organisation, whose thematic areas are, campaign, advocacy, and research; research is our mainstay.
Hence there is no way you can be able to make a point without conducting thorough research that has a lot of evidence, and balance that will convince even the doubting thomases.
The importance of our work in human rights education as we have partnered with many Institutions across the Country and have again just done with the University of Calabar, in doing so we set up human rights clinics whose campaign is seeking justice rather than victimisation in any form no matter the perceived infractions.
Our collaboration is to campaign against human rights abuses, we seek justice and equality. Access to justice, the Right to peaceful protests, and a safe environment. We are against the criminalisation of the freedom of information, as Investigative Journalism should not be seen as a crime. Violence against women, Mob justice/jungle justice. AIN have been consistent and seeking Gender equality law.
And in 2009, we succeeded in granting Agba Jalingo the status of a Prisoner of Conscience globally.
Amnesty International is dedicated to ensuring that every human being can enjoy these human rights.
After our meeting, we should be able to know what are the key human rights issues that we are worried about and that they would want solutions to.
Sanusi abhorred the superstitious beliefs of tagging people as witches to harm them as he cited the Boki and Akamkpa cases.
It is our earnest hope and wish that our campaigns will yield results, Sanusi said.
Mr. Canice Chukwu, a Researcher with Amnesty International Nigeria, who had spoken earlier revealed that their core mandate is research and thorough investigation to ensure that justice is served for victims and survivors, our impartiality is to all as he enumerated AIN activities in Cross River State in the past.
Leader Ben Usang, Head of Cross River State Civil Society Network, appreciated the good works of Amnesty International Nigeria and the partnership with CSOs in Cross River and assured that the goals and objectives will surely be achieved through mutual collaboration and respect.
He urged AIN to look at the Unical Sexgate from a holistic perspective and not hearsays and sentiments, as he calls for investigations into the corruption and maladministration of the University of Calabar allegations.
