“WEST AFRICA’S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL GROWTH ARE LINKED TO OUR UNDERSTANDING AND APPLICATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS’’: Afi Yakubu

The Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA) held a two day consultative meeting with thirty of its partners from Ghana, Sierra Leone and Togo in Accra to develop a plan of action on main streaming human rights in their programmes. The participants came from a wide range of civil society organisations working in the areas of Child Rights, Human Trafficking, Gender, Arms Control and Trade Unions. This took place on 30th April and 1st May 2007

According to the Associate Director of FOSDA, Ms. Afi Yakubu, the project has become very necessary because West Africa’s evolving democracies will be threatened, if issues of human security, especially Good Governance, Violence-free Elections, Security Sector Reform, Poverty, HIV/AIDS, Climate Change, Gender Equity, Child Rights, Human Trafficking, access to education and information, etc. are not integrated into the national policies of various countries.

According to Afi Yakubu, economic empowerment and youth empowerment, gender-based and freedom from fear are the some of the critical building blocks upon which a solid foundation for West Africa’s democracy can be built

Explaining the objectives of the Human Rights and Disarmament Project, Ms Yakubu noted that there are numerous NGOs working in the areas of human rights, voter education and arms control but there has been very few and isolated cases of a coordinated approach where human rights, democratic governance and arms regulation are consciously harmonized in such programmes. Linking human rights to disarmament is a healthy approach towards the promotion of the ‘democratic principles of good governance;’ It will add the needed traction to a holistic development of West Africa and its peoples.

The sudden increase in violent conflicts in West African states in transition from non-democratic to multi party democratic regimes calls for closer collaboration between NGOs specialized in various human security projects, especially human rights, small arms control and sustainable development. This kind of co-operation will be consistent with many African development-oriented initiatives such as NEPAD and UN Millennium Development Goals.

Speaking on the topic, ‘Human Security: An Agenda for West Africa’s Development’, Mrs. Janet Mohammed, Project Director, West African Human Rights & Democratization Project of Ibis West Africa, observed that political tensions, ethnic conflicts, post colonial subordination, un-healthy hold on to power, heavy indebtedness and unsound economic policies are some of the factors that threaten human rights and human dignity and require the active involvement of civil society to correct.

Mr. Baffour Amoa, President of the West Africa Action Network on Small Arms noted that West Africa has good protocols in place to address the human security challenges of the sub region if they are well disseminated and enforced. Through advocacy and lobbying civil society can play a complementary role in supporting West African governments to create an environment that is conducive for development?

The consultation was detailed and received rich inputs on the following topics;
Human Security: An agenda for West Africa’s Development; Rights of the Child in Advancing Democracy in West Africa; Stemming Gender-based Violence in West Africa-Steps to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals; ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and all its related aspects in promoting human rights in West Africa; Arms for Development: Experiences from Sierra Leone and Right-based Approaches to Development in West Africa- Role of Civil Society.

The participants discussed and resolved to do the following:

• Popularise and promote the rights-based approaches to development
• Ensure children’s rights are mainstreamed, and educate children as right holders of their responsibilities
• Include human security issues in lobbying and campaigning activities

Participants noted that; ‘The West African sub-region has a number of countries experiencing growing democracies despite the numerous challenges and teething problems. It is a system of governance now preferred to military dictatorships. Consequently, all efforts need to be made to sustain this emerging democratic culture....’ This was contained in a communiqué read by Ms Afi Yakubu and signed by representatives of FOSDA, WAANSA and Ibis to mark the end of the consultation.