By Yetunde Verissimo, The Sight News
In a bid to promote and advance digital rights in Nigeria, Paradigm Initiative and Citizens Gavel, both non- profit organizations, have agreed to come together and work through strategic litigation and other activities.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) jointly signed by both organizations, revealed that Citizens Gavel will work with Paradigm Initiative to provide legal support to advance the promotion and protection of digital rights in Nigeria amongst other things.
In addition, both organizations will work together to educate the public about the digital rights and applicable laws in Nigeria.
Nelson Olanipekun Esq, human rights lawyer and team lead at Citizens Gavel while speaking on the development says: “majority of injustices are faced by young people who often spend over four hours online daily according to research. That means one-quarter of a day of a young person is spent online; many of these young people do a lot of productive things online such as the sale of goods/service, promotion of right causes, etc.
“It is high time we began to take serious their safety, human rights and peaceful living online by advancing digital rights”, he stated.
Also, the Program Manager, Paradigm Initiative, Adeboye Adegoke noted that, “There has been a huge gap from a legal perspective, in the work to advance and promote human rights online in Nigeria. We typically receive reports of violations requiring legal interventions.
“In the past, we have taken on many of these violations through strategic litigation. However, this partnership will provide an opportunity for us to get legal support and pursue justice for more victims of digital rights violations in Nigeria.”
Strategic litigation is the identification and pursuit of legal cases as part of a strategy to promote human rights. It focuses on an individual case in order to bring about broader social change.
Citizen Gavel is a civic tech organization accelerating the pace of justice delivery through access to justice, technology for justice and accountability.
Paradigm Initiative is a social enterprise that builds an ICT-enabled support system and advocates digital rights in order to improve livelihoods for under-served youth.
