By Usman Shuaibu
The Centre for Women Studies and Intervention (CSWI), an Abuja-based Non-Governmental Organisation has begun sensitization of primary and secondary school students in Asaba and its environs on the need to establish Human Rights Clubs in the schools in order to raise awareness of fundamental human rights issues in children.
The organisation stated that school children need to understand that they have a right to quality education, especially given the fact that education is the key to unlocking the doors of prosperity in any given society and that those who lacked education are easily lured into vices and activities that often lead to regrets in the future.
While recently addressing students of Osadenis Mixed Secondary school, Asaba as part of the sensitisation exercise, the Asaba Zonal Co-ordinator of CSWI, Mr. Harry Idoro said: “Every child deserves quality education which will help form you into better and useful individuals in the society. An educated student does not find pleasure in things that will hamper his reputation.
“Therefore, you must understand that proper education helps you to not only fight for your rights and the rights of others, but also to defend those rights.’’
“The major part of our campaign is to, after sensitization, establish a Human Rights Club. This will be a channel through which unwholesome activities that undermine the rights of students and other individuals can be addressed by relevant authorities,” he said, adding, “as a matter of fact, the approval we got was to establish a Human Rights Club in each school, but we must first of all carry out some form of sensitization.”
He explained that the sensitization began last year following an approval by Mrs. J.A. Ishaka, the then Chief Inspector of Education (CIE) at the Ministry of Education, Asaba, in a bid to instil morals and uphold educational standards through knowledge of fundamental human rights.
Idoro noted that under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child deserves the right to join groups and associations, but warned against joining illegal groups while advising the students to further desist from cultism and other related unlawful activities and urged them to report such incidences to relevant authorities.
The CWSI has so far visited and sensitized students of Osadenis Mixed Secondary school and Niger Mixed Secondary school, both in Asaba.
