THE YEAR 2004 IN PERSPECTIVE

This annual report documents WACOL’s activities in 2004, another fulfilling and extremely rewarding year as the organization continues to grow from strength to strength in terms of institutional capabilities and program outlay and achievements. Thematically, the report covers issues on Gender, Human Rights, Health, Good Governance and Conflict Resolution, WACOL’s areas of focus and competence. Despite expansion of WACOL’s projects and programmes, it remained true to its vision and mission of promoting human rights of women and young people through a wide range of services such as free legal aid, rapid response to victims of human rights abuses, training, advocacy, information, education, couselling, shelter and support services for battered and displaced women and girls. amply demonstrated in this report. The Swedish NGO Foundation continued to provide Institutional support for our Legal Aid Project in South East and South South Zones of Nigeria.

WACOL has become not only a household name in the areas of its operation but a credible organization that enjoys tremendous amount of community support for its programmes. Through its grassroots work and high level policy advocacy, WACOL has become a positive catalyst in community development and policy formulation nation- wide. As an advocacy group, WACOL has utilized its goodwill for the best interests of its target groups and beneficiaries - individuals and communities alike.

Specifically, a number of trainings were organized for different target groups in 2004 and these include: Paralegal training, gender and human rights training for the Police/Law Enforcement agencies and also for the Judiciary and Legislators. Peer Health Educators training for teachers/counselors and students was done as part of WACOL’s initiative with PATHS/DFID on promoting reproductive health and rights of young people and HIV/AIDs reduction. Further, we held Judicial Colloquium on Reprohealth, Law and Human Rights in collaboration with our partners: LRRDC and CIRDDOC as part of the concluding activities of the project supported by John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Further Judicial training was carried out and in partnership with Nigeria Judicial Institute(NJI), National Association of Women Judges, and United Nations Funds for Women (UNIFEM) on Jurisprudence of Equality, which is essentially training on human rights/women’s rights from gender perspectives and legal framework of equality and justice.

WACOL continued and expanded its Legal Education and Access to Justice Programme to additional 8 states in Northern Nigeria (Katsina, Gombe, Niger, Bauchi Sokoto, Jigawa, Kebbi, Katsina States) and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja with the support of Heinrich Boll Foundation and Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA). WACOL Abuja office coordinated this and the mobile legal clinics in those states in the North through assistance of trained paralegals and community coordinators of the project. Simultaneously, our Pro bono service is growing with more legal practitioners volunteering their services. The Port Harcourt Office of WACOL initiated a Partnership with NBA Rivers State and UNICEF to provide free legal services for juveniles in conflict with the law. Also with the support of UNVFVT and Global Opportunity Funds, we continued our multiple interventions in the Niger Delta region and Zaki Biam (Benue State) to reintegrate female victims of torture/conflicts and assist them to assume constructive roles and be peace actors in their respective communities.

We had four major celebrations in the year: the Day of the African Child, African Women’s Day, Human Rights Day and the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women (16 Days of Activism). The Human Rights Day became an ideal opportunity to honour and bestow on deserving women and men the prestigious WACOL Ambassador of Women’s Rights Award.

During the year under review, WACOL worked closely with a variety of organizations both within and outside the country to pursue mutually identified interests. We strived to sustain the various coalitions and networks with which we associate especially such NGOs as CEDAW Coalition for Shadow Reporting, the Network for Promotion of Women’s Rights in Islamic Societies of West Africa (NPWRIS) and the Society for Law and Medicine. WACOL believe strongly in the value of documentation and this has culminated in several volumes of publications in our field of interest and expertise. Furthermore, WACOL, in her different offices, made unrelenting effort to run a specialized reference library for public use. This has become a clearing house of some sort and stocks modern publications, case reports and Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.

As can been gleaned from the foregoing highlights, it has been a beehive of activities and highly impacting year for WACOL and we could not have reached that height without the support of our partners, which WACOL leveraged on to grow in both capacity and reach. Therefore, we want to thank immensely our numerous partners, beneficiaries and donor organizations for making it possible for us to realize set objectives of WACOL for the year 2004.

The level of commitment of both the management and staff of the organisation is astonishing and contributed to the successful running of our projects and programmes. To the WACOL family, I would like to say well done and remember that the work is not done until our vision of a democratic society where the citizens, especially women and young people, enjoy their human rights and benefit fully from sustainable development and technological advancement without exploitation or discrimination whatsoever, is achieved. Therefore, the struggle continues!

By
Joy Ngozi Ezeilo
Chief Executive Officer WACOL