West Africa Civil Society Institute wacsi.org

WACSI Participates at the 51st Session of the African Commisson on Human and Peoples' Rights

The session brought together a cross-section of civil society organisations (CSOs) from across Africa and the diaspora to brainstorm on current trends pertaining to the respect and protection of the human rights of Africans.

WACSI was invited by the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum (APCOF) as the interim secretariat of the Africa Security Sector Capacity Building Network for CSOs. This enabled WACSI to represent the views of the network by participating in the NGO forum to create an avenue for the network to promote its agenda.

APCOF, CLEEN foundation, the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) and the Pan African Security Sector Network, represented by WACSI, are leading the process of creating a platform for Policing and Human Rights at the African Commission. In a statement by DIHR, Lizbet Ilkjaer pointed out that "good police community relations are critical to an effective policing respecting human rights". She further pointed out that the "police must be confident of their own safety and communities must be confident of the positive presence that the police bring".

Read the mission of platform for Policing and Human Rights at the African Commission here and a full statement by DIHR here.

The over 200 organisations represented at this forum made valuable inputs to sustain the ongoing efforts to protect human and people's rights on the continent. In a statement released at the forum the non-governmental organisation working group called for the African Commission "to develop guidelines that will: guide police agencies in their work; and serve as a template for state parties to report to the Commission and conduct oversight visits.

For full statement, click here.