With a goal to strengthen grassroots justice seekers resilience towards monitoring, documenting and reporting Human Rights abuses in the North West and South West Regions, Hope Advocates Africa (HADA) in partnership with the Innovations in legal empowerment (NAMATI) has in a recent capacity building workshop trained about 80 participants on how to go about tackling issues related human rights violation.
Funded by the Global Human Rights fund through the Covid-19 grassroots justice fund, the training which took place in Buea on Saturday April, 16 2022 was also geared towards the legal empowerment of the grassroots justice seekers with the relevant knowledge to negotiate fair solutions and create a network with the justice seekers which will serve as a support structure for survivors of violence.
The Executive Director of Hope Advocates Africa Caryn Dasah said there are a lot of unverified information/ fake news roaming around especially on social media. So Hope Advocates Africa comes in to ensure that such things do not occur. “Sometimes on social media victims of human rights violation are exposed which brings a lot of trauma and stigma on the victims. So we are here to ensure that whatever information we disseminate to the public is verified and should not instill fear, hate or harm.
The selected grassroots actors are expected to verify information monitor and respond to human rights issues in Cameroon.
“We want to have a responsible society/community, efficient when it comes to reporting and a community that puts into practice the ‘Do No Harm principles’. Everybody’s privacy is supposed is to respected and not just put on social media simply because we are in an android world”. Caryn Dasah noted.
The 80 participants; grassroots justice seekers, civil society, journalists, faith based organizations drawn from the six divisions of the South West region were educated on the legal and religious implications of human rights violation, Gender Based Violence and what they should do when faced with issues related to the violation of human rights.
According to the founding President/Women Empowerment and protection officer for a CSO, (Investing in People Worldwide) Ruth Abunaw, the initiative from Hope Advocates Africa is a laudable one. “During this crisis human rights violations and abuses have been exasperated and the persons who face this most are women.
On social media we have a lot of information which is just out to stir up violence so this project is timely as it will help educate the community/ human rights and justice seekers within communities on the best approaches on how to handle human right violations and how to monitor human rights cases”.
Lilian Dibo Eyoung partaking in the event as a facilitator on disability rights added that there is a symbiotic relationship between disability rights advocacy and human rights violation. “The rights of persons with disability have also been violated and we are here to correct those wrongs”.
Hope Advocates Africa is a Women’s Rights Organization dedicated in highlighting issues of human and women’s rights in our society. The organization also focuses on Gender-based violence, peace-building, transitional justice etc. The non-profit organisation provides services for GBV victims, internally displaced persons and also empowers women economically with skills.
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