Knowing better and claiming our rights in Africa!cliquer ici pour la version française.

Since 2008 and for four years, Amnesty’s Africa Human Right Education project is involving ten West and Est African Countries is supporting 20 partners by strengthening their capacity to plan, co-ordinate and deliver locally relevant HRE. These partners have created and equipped a pool of 146 Human Rights Activists and Community Based Organisations, with the necessary human rights knowledge, skills and tools to design, support, deliver and monitor Human Rights Education projects.

Women in Titao, Northern region of Burkina ready to sensitize people about their rights.

“In Kanshegu, Gbimsi and Bolgatanga, Northern and Upper East Region of Ghana,
more than 80% of the adult population in these communities are illiterates and so are ignorant about the value of education most especially the girl-child since she will be married off and so investing in her will be useless. Again women and children are not included in decision making as traditionally they are considered to have very little knowledge about issues. Our project will therefore enlighten the children most especially the girl child on their rights and responsibilities and how to demand and claim them. Parents will also be educated on the importance of schooling and what their responsibilities are in order to achieve success in education.” Say Three Teachers from Ghana Education Service (GES),holders of a project targeting girl child education in nine schools.

The participatory consultation conducted by project participants of the Moyamba District Human Rights Committee in August 2009 in Kongbora, Kaiyamba and Fakunya chiefdoms in Moyamba District, Sierra leone, revealed that there were more violations in maternal mortality, domestic violence, rape, sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy and female genital mutilation (FGM) which needed to be addressed appropriately. “From the needs assessment statistic, maternal mortality was
prevalence. The high incidents of child mortality and maternal mortality against women and girls is influenced by the lack of adequate human rights education, marginalization and privatization of medical service and medical personnel, hence the high cost of drugs. This took advantage of situation that pregnant women and girls attend to more Traditional Birth attendants (TBA’S) than the maternal
child Aide Nurses in the target communities. Our project is designed to address these issues through adequate human rights education in the target communities through Training, Radio Discussion Program, Community Drama Performance.” State project holders.

In Senegal Daman Cissoko, a committed human rights Activist aims to “contribute to the promotion and protection of women’s rights in Casamance in 4 peripheral neighborhood of Ziguinchor,Casamance and fights against violence against women linked to conflict using tools such as theater and radio shows”

Youth Consultation in Sikasso, Mali. Young people also have a key role in promoting human rights in their communities.

In Kenya, Kibera Kids Youth Project Organization has been at the forefront of highlighting human rights violations in the slums such as rape, which has increased in the past few years, despite the passing of the Sexual Offences Bill (2006). This community based organization wants to turn the cycle for positive change of politically motivated violence within its locality through its existing activities.
The organization being Youth Based, will use young people as its entry point by bringing forth human rights issues that have for some years now, been ignored. “We will use Creative ways of solving political differences by coming up with effective reconciliation mechanisms. We want to address change of people's attitudes towards tolerating different political views, impart knowledge that will empower people so as to reduce political opportunists and support the ongoing reforms that will bring institutional changes in our governance structure.” Say project holder.

Hundreds of stories like that can be reported. Near to 150 human activists from Benin, Burkina Faso,Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Uganda, are partnering with Amnesty in this Africa Human Right Education project co-funded by DFID. They will, through 90 micro projects, work hand-in-hand with communities to not only raise most important human rights issues in
these communities but also act and react to improve the situation. Their micro projects are targeting: Violence Against women, Women rights, Maternal Health & Harmful cultural practices, Child rights, Economic Social and Cultural Rights, Minority rights, Political and police violence, etc. The Africa Human Rights Education Project is about achieving specific outcomes, not just raising awareness of problems, developing strategies based on participatory research and analysis rather than guesswork. It is about choosing approaches and deploying resources where they will have most impact; with the aim to see an increased number of people aware of their human rights and empowered with information and understanding of how they relate to their lives. This project is not about human rights activists implemented human rights education micro projects, it is about people changing their lives through their active participation in their implementation. Because, we strongly believe that the more we know our rights the better we can defend them!

Aminatou Sar
Africa Human Rights Education Project Manager
Amnesty International regional Office
P.O. Box 47582 Dakar - Senegal
Tel: +221 33 864 77 74 / 33 864 21 94
Email: aminatou.sar@amnesty.org
http://hre.amnesty.org/