The Executive Director of the Building Blocks for Peace Foundation (BBFORPEACE), Mr. Rafiu Lawal, has called for legislative and judicial reviews of repressive laws across West Africa as part of initiatives to address the region’s shrinking civic space.
He made the call during a Two-Day Training of Trainers on ‘Community Organising, Mobilising and Non-Violent Civil Resistance in West Africa’, which was held in Abuja, Nigeria, on August 12th and 13th, 2024, in collaboration with the Karibu Foundation, the Action Group on Free Civic Space, and GPPAC West Africa.
Mr Lawal noted that existing laws that do not preserve human dignity and conform with the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights should be scrapped. These laws empower States to shrink civic and digital spaces and particularly violate the rights of young people.