Embrace digital rights protection, ASFF tells Nigeria

As body trains judges, lawyers

COUNTRY Director, Avocats Sans Frontieres France ( ASFF), Angela UzomaIwuchukwu, has said Nigeria has a long way to go in ensuring digital rights protection and protection online.

She said this, yesterday, at the opening of a two- day training for judges and lawyers on digital rights in Ikeja, Lagos.

ASFF organised the training in collaboration with the European Union ( EU) on the platform of the EU Rights Project.

She said: “When it comes to freedom of expression, we have seen journalists and activists arrested under Section 24 of the Cyber Crimes Act and tagged for cyberstalking. So, how do we rate it in terms of number? It suffices to say that we still have a long way to go to ensure that we understand that freedom of expression that is protected in the Constitution is not just offline, but also in the online context.

“So, training is to promote and enhance the enjoyment of digital rights in Nigeria, enjoyment of human rights in the digital sphere. It means ensuring that when we interface with technology, our rights are respected. “There are different levels of responsibilities. We have responsibilities on the part of government, on the part of the technological providers and the online users. And that’s why today we are having this training for judges and la wyers to ensure that they understand the context and are well equipped to be able to uphold the enjo yment of digital rights.”

On judges and la wyers’ knowledge of digital rights, she said: “It is not just about Nigerian judges, it’s a chal - lenge all over the world because it’s an evolving area and it’s a fast en vironment. Technologies are evolving every day, there is Artificial Intelligence ( AI) that we have to deal with and the human rights community as well.”