Conference on African-focused climate, env’tal and natural resources rights and protection end in Freetown

Conference on African-focused climate

A group of like-minded public interest lawyers and human rights and environmental activists from across Africa have rounded up their four-day conference in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on African-focused climate, environmental and natural resources rights and protection tools and mechanisms.

It was a collaborative conference for Public Interest Lawyering Initiative for West Africa (PILIWA), Environmental Rights Africa (ERA), Africa Climate Platform (ACP) and Mano River Union Civil Society Platform (MRUCP) to share updates on their activities and explore further ways of supporting each other.

The conference brainstormed on some long-standing litigation at hand vis-à-vis some governments’ actions calculated to cause delays and impede the work of the activists on such cases and a possibility of creating a funding mechanism for their work while firming up some key deliverables, going forward.

Gloria Aigbadon and Courage Nsirimovu, both of PILIWA-Nigeria and Dr. Chernor Benedict Jalloh of PILIWA-Sierra Leone took turns to update the conference about the happenings in their respective jurisdictions.

In his brief presentation, Courage Nsirimovu, the Focal Person of PILIWA-Nigeria shared some successes chalked over the last two years because of a collaboration between PILIWA-Nigeria and the Caleb University, the University of Benin and the Port Harcourt branch of the Nigerian Bar Association.

According to Lawyer Nsirimovu, PILIWA-Nigeria will be undertaking a project dubbed “Makoko Environmental Advocacy in collaboration with Caleb University with the aim of getting the Lagos State Government to intervene in the matter of the Makoko people whose environment has been affected by stagnant water from the Lagos lagoon due to poor canal structure.

“In addition, PILIWA Nigeria will pick simple public interest cases in six states where we are present in Nigeria, in order to ensure justice for indigent persons and keep our members active and engaged”, he also said.

He commended Advocates for Community Alternatives (ACA) for its continuing support toward the activities of PILIWA-Nigeria

The Legal Clinic team of the Caleb University, as part of the conference, presented a gift to ACA for its immense support in setting up the clinic. ACA’s Executive Director, Jonathan Kaufman, received the gift on behalf of the organization.  

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *