The human rights situation in West Africa, is bleak

Amnesty International, the Centre for the Promotion, Development and Defence of Human Rights and the West African Bar Association presented a bleak human rights situation in West Africa to the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), on Saturday 25 June 2022 in Abuja.

Presentations from these three organizations enabled community MPs to measure the extent of human rights violations in the West African region, which is facing several crises: Security, humanitarian, food, political…

While recognizing that the human rights situation varies from country to country in the ECOWAS region, Amnesty International states that “pressing needs for the protection of human rights in the region exist with the persistence of situations of conflict and insecurity of populations, violations of economic and social rights, gender-based discrimination and violence and restriction of civic space“.

To remedy this situation, the Centre for the Promotion, Development and Defence of Human Rights, recommends that the ECOWAS Parliament “advocate to find solutions to human rights abuses and violations with a view to improving the human rights situation in West Africa”.

As for the West African Bar Association, it focused its intervention on the occurrence of coups d’état in the region, thus compounding the security and humanitarian situation in this region.