WACOL: Celebrating 25 Years of Promoting Human Rights, Women and Girls Empowerment

For a non-governmental organisation such as the Women Aide Collective, WACOL, to celebrate 25 years of impacting care and empowerment of the lives of women and girls calls for huge accolades, writes Amby Uneze

The start-up of any business or organisation takes a lot of work, time, planning and thoughts. It has not been an easy journey the world over to initiate an idea, plan, establish and nurture it to a point of meeting the world standard which the Women Aide Collective (WACOL) has attended in its 25 years of its existence.

While her contemporaries were waiting for ‘manna’ to fall from heaven, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo was busy reading, lecturing, molding minds, planning how best to assist the fortunes of helpless women and girls, especially in ensuring the eradication of widowhood practices in Igboland and beyond and stopping rapes among the girl child, etc. That in a nutshell was how the Women Aide Collective was founded in Enugu in 1997 precisely.

To her, it was a normal activity any focused, hardworking and serious-minded person needed to do in order to actualize a burning desire. That desire had no other objective than to create a positive impact in the society by making sure that the rights of the people especially women, girls and those who cannot voice out their predicaments caused by inhuman treatment by their fellow human beings are heard.

According to the founder, the idea behind the formation of WACOL was to have an organisation with a strong focus on access to justice for women and children in especially difficult circumstances. From my experiences belonging to membership organisations such as Women in Nigeria (WIN) and the International Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA), I noticed the gap in unmet justice needs of this category, especially poor women and girls doubly disadvantaged and discriminated against because of their sex and gender.

The search for justice by this category of persons often ends in futility. Hence the need to provide information and necessary support that would enable those whose human rights have been violated to recognize and respond to such violations. 

The myriads of challenges for those seeking to obtain redress from Nigeria’s legal system are what WACOL exists to tackle. WACOL was established in 1997 as an independent, non-political, non-governmental and non-profit organization; registered as a company limited by guarantee, that is, as a charitable organization (RC: 388132).

WACOL’s vision as enunciated by the founder is a democratic society free from violence and abuse, where human rights of all in particular women and young people are recognized in law and practice.  Its mission is to assist in the education, social, economic and political development of women and young people through a wide range of services: training, research, advocacy, shelter, free legal and financial aid, intra-familial conflict resolution, and information and library services.

WACOL works throughout Nigeria and in the West African sub-region and its offices in Nigeria are located in eight states namely: Abuja (FCT), Enugu, Owerri, Cross River, Anambra, Ebonyi, and Edo States. WACOL in general works in four thematic areas namely; gender/human rights, peace advocacy/conflict resolution, democracy/good governance and reproductive health /rights.

Going memory lane on how WACOL started, Professor Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) noted with enthusiasm, “At the onset of WACOL, I had the privilege of winning the MacArthur Funds for Leadership Development in 1998 and that award then gives the individual winner $75,000 for a period of three years to conduct research and develop whatever initiative they consider a priority in the field of reproductive health and rights.

“I did not use the money to buy a car for myself nor did I embark on jamborees to show the world that I had arrived. We hired an office to accommodate us and that helped me to realize my dream. In fact, it was in the year I introduced the course: women, children and law at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. We were the first university in Nigeria to start that course as the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) gave its approval and introduced it in the curriculum.

“I used my funds to carry out research on “Legal Constraints to Adolescents’ Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Nigeria”. It was the first of its kind looking at the law, the protection it offers young women and men, and gaps and challenges in mainstreaming sexual and reproductive health and rights. 

“The findings of that formative study revealed and reinforced the interconnectedness of rights and how gender impacts the enjoyment of human rights of women, including health decision-making. Furthermore, it demonstrated how the personal becomes political and women’s body the site of struggle.

” In fact, the conceptualised dichotomy of public and private spheres, productive and reproductive exacerbates gender inequalities, discrimination as well as gender based violence against women and girls.

“The journey of WACOL started in 1997 and by 1998 WACOL was up and functioning in our first rented duplex accommodation with boys’ quarters at New Haven. We immediately started the safe house in 1998 to shelter women and girls at the peak of crises who have suffered human rights violence and/or are victims of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). The MacArthur personal funds leadership I won at that time made it possible for me to financially support WACOL before it got other funding opportunities.

“It was the same year 1997 that I started teaching the course, women, children and Law at the University of Nigeria, Faculty of Law. I felt additionally energized after my LLM at the University of London in 1995 with a full Chevening Scholarship managed by the British Council to also engage in a scholarship that would advance social transformation.  Thus, I worked to blend theory and practice manifested in my scholarship and activism.

“My mother’s widowhood experiences helped to shape my passion in defending human rights and of course in studying and practicing law.

“WACOL is a dream come through and its vision has been translated into action and her mandate is being realized given the recorded milestones achieved in the last twenty-five years. Woah!  I cannot believe it is a quarter of a century already. 

“Indeed, time to begin a transitional phase of handing over the baton to the next generation of female transformational leaders to continue the struggle we have started and build on the existing foundation and structure. The achievements are encouraging, especially assisting over sixty thousand women and children in need through our free legal aid programme.”

On free legal aid, which has become the mainstay of WACOL because of the believe that without redress and accountability the impunity of human rights violation will continue, WACOL is considered as the number one legal aid service provider for women and girls in Nigeria for providing assistance to about 2,000 on an annual basis with over 4,000 drop-ins yearly.

“We register an average of 20 cases daily at our legal clinic. This is evidence based and well documented. From 1998 to date approximately 62,000 women and girls have accessed free legal aid and assistance services. We provide free legal services for women and young people in our offices across the country. We also run community law centers in Katsina, Ebonyi and Anambra States, including Mobile Legal Clinics in Bayelsa, Benue, Enugu and Rivers States.”

The services available under the legal aid scheme include court representation, crisis intervention and counselling, information about victims’ rights, shelter, home visits and other psycho-social support for victims, and referrals for other needs. These cases are on different human rights abuses, including denial of inheritance, assault/battery, child abuse/neglect, harassment/intimidation, sexual assault/rape, family maintenance and other forms of violence against women and young people.

Furthermore, the network of WACOL spans being a member of many coalitions, including foundation member of LACVAW, Gender Technical Unit (GTU), Gender and Constitutional Advocacy Network (GECORN), and the Network of Sexual Assault Referral Centres.

WACOL pioneered and still coordinate the following networks with the its office serving secretariat to Victims Support Club (VISUC); Survivors Watch, Widows Economic Empowerment programme (WEEP); Nigerian NGO CEDAW Coalition, South East Women’s Network; West African Women’s Rights Coalition (WAWORC); Network for Women Living Under Religious and Customary Laws (NPWRIS); South East Human Rights Situation Room, Partners for Peace Advocacy and Good Governance; Media against Sexual Violence, Male champions for Women’s Rights and Gender Equity Movement (GEM).

Professor Joy Ngozi Ezeilo is a distinguished Law Professor, the emeritus dean of law, UNN and former United Nations Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children. She is a versatile legal scholar recognized as a leading authority on the rights of women and children in Africa. She founded WACOL and Tamar SARC as well as pioneered the teaching of women, children and the law in 1997, including developing a curriculum for the teaching of human rights, health law and reproductive rights in Nigerian Universities and sexual harassment policy for education institutions and workplaces.

To mention a few, Prof. Ezeilo is the 2019 winner of the National Human Rights Award and was also honoured with the civil society award of excellence by the UN Development Programme (UNDP)/UN Women in collaboration with the Embassies of the US, Germany, France, EU Delegation and the British High Commission to mark the International Women’s Day Awards Gala 2022 held at the US Consul General’s Residence.

Eulogising the work of WACOL and its founder, Chairman of the occasion on the celebration of 25^th anniversary of WACOL, Professor Ifeoma Enemuo (mni) of the Faculty of Law, UNN described Prof Joy Ezeilo as an international woman activist of repute. According to her, it is not easy to celebrate 25 years of quality service to humanity, adding “it is the Lords’ doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

“Joy Ezeilo is WACOL and vice versa. She is an international woman activist of great repute. She is our digital Professor in the faculty. We call her “Ada Eji Eje Mba” (A daughter her community is proud of). She made the list of the most 50 world international women. WACOL has expanded so much as one of the leading human rights organizations in the world. I congratulate the WACOL family for the outstanding work it had continued to do to better the society at large. I say Kudos!”

Goodwill messages were sent from funders and associates of WACOL. Such as representatives of States and Federal Government; WACOL Boards Director, Justice Nkem Izuako (rtd), UN Human Rights, UN Women, UNDP, UNICEF, Action Aid Nigeria,  Ford Foundation, John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, J4A, DFID/British Council, WACOL Alumni, Ifeoma Anya Ogbologu; Traditional Rulers represented by Igwe Barr. Ralph Eze (Igwe 50-50); Representative of CSOs/NGOs/Women’s Movement, Dr. Abiola Akiyode; CBO/Faith-based Organizations represented by Rev. Fr. Ambrose Ekeroku of Carmelite Prisoners’ Interest Organization (CAPIO), and Justice G.C. Nnamani, President of Customary Court.

The highlight of the anniversary was the presentation of awards to those who have contributed significantly to the growth of WACOL over the past 25 years of defending human rights and promoting women and girls empowerment. They included: Professor Chinyere Stella Okunna (DVC Academics) Paul University, Awka, former Chief of Staff to Governor Peter Obi and First Female Professor of Mass Communication in Sub-Saharan Africa), Emeritus Professor Obioma Nwaorgu (Fellow, Academics of Science) and Executive Director, Global Health awareness Research Foundation (GHARF), Lolo Igwe Joy Ekoh, Mrs. Helen Eze, and Sir Amby Uneze, Senior Correspondent of THISDAY Newspapers, Owerri.

The wish of Professor Ezeilo is that “WACOL will continue to focus on transforming societies for greater recognition and respect for women’s rights in law and practice. In doing so it will intensify social and legislative advocacy. It will engage in evidence-based research and data collation that will inform policy change and advocacy for law reforms, especially ones that will close the gender gaps.

“I will end by saying that today is better than yesterday and tomorrow holds our attainments of ideals of democracy and development that are engendered. Whilst acknowledging progress and milestones recorded, it is not yet Uhuru and we must continue to focus on dismantling structures and enablers of violence against women and girls, gender discrimination and inequalities.”

She urged governments to fulfill her state responsibilities and effectively implement extant laws on human rights, women’s rights, and children’s rights, including for persons with disabilities, adding “WACOL would continue to raise the accountability stake until its vision is achieved.” 

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On free legal aid, which has become the mainstay of WACOL because of the believe that without redress and accountability, the impunity of human rights violation will continue, WACOL is considered as the number one legal aid service provider for women and girls in Nigeria for providing assistance to about 2,000 on an annual basis with over 4,000 drop-ins yearly