Advocacy group, CLEEN Foundation, has organised a three-day capacity-building workshop for journalists and civil society observatory groups in Edo State to raise awareness on the Police Anti-Torture Act, 2017.
The Police Anti-Torture Act 2017 is a law that aims to ensure accountability for law enforcement officers who engage in torture, prohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment in Nigeria.
The new project is supported by the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC II) Programme and funded by the European Union, implemented by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).
The Program Officer of CLEEN Foundation, Edo office, Blessing Eromon, said the workshop is geared to sensitize and further inform the CSOs and media, regarding the Anti-Torture Act because, according to her, they are close to the grassroots.
Blessing noted, “The media has a very important role to play. They carry this information to the people. They have a way of putting information out there, and the people believe.
”And so, we believe that if these two powerful stakeholders are properly sensitized, properly trained, properly exposed to the truth of the Anti-Torture Act, it will become very easy for us as citizens to live a secure life that is free of oppression.”
She added that the Foundation had taken steps ahead to also train the law enforcement agencies to be aware of the Act, to be cautious and to treat citizens with human dignity.
Also, a professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Benin, Dr. Eddy Akpomera, took participants through the legal framework of torture and their roles in shaping society.
”There’s already a legal instrument, and that is the Nigerian Anti-Torture Act 2017, which must be implemented.
”But the issue of exposure, publicity, advocacy is missing. And that is what we want to achieve from this workshop,” Akpomera stated.
