Women Only Civil-Military Training Program

Abuses of women evoke deeper emotions when the dynamics of both physical, social, and economic factors and as well general social perceptions, come into play. Hence, the need to pay more attention to women's rights has become paramount.

While there is a rise in women's involvement in this sector in Nigeria as more women become conscious of decisions taken by those who head the security desks, it is paramount to mention that still, Nigeria has a very small number of women in the Security Sector Governance space.  Hence, the need to get women actively involved in civil-military operations cannot be overemphasized. A veritable means of achieving this is the meaningful mainstreaming of women in the security sector governance space.

To facilitate this, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Nigeria in collaboration with the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) and the National Women Platform on Security Sector Reform and Governance organized two streams of Women Only Civil-Military Relations Training to improve the capacity of the Desk Officers and women human rights practitioners in integrating human rights standards in delivering their mandates.

The training programme which was held in Jos (Plateau State) and Ikeja (Lagos state), brought together over 100 women actors drawn from security forces, Law enforcement officials, CSOs and traditional young women groups. Participants were exposed to several aspects of human rights and security sector governance, to create possible collaboration between military and civil society in promoting human rights as well as Civil-Military Relations.

Participants agree that in fostering accountability within the security sector and its governance, there is a huge need to review and restructure the nature of the armed actors operating in Nigeria as the number of reports on grave disrespect for human rights continues to rise.

Participants also opined that both duty bearers and rights holders have been at the forefront of violating and abusing human rights in Nigeria. Since people are exposed to these abuses and transgressions daily, its societal growth has heightened the call for the protection of human rights. 

The experience-sharing session also provided an opportunity for a well-rounded conversation on the system for human rights accountability and enforcement in Nigeria, to encourage discussion on how the system has been deployed, as well as analyse the cooperative possibilities for human rights accountability and enforcement.