In keeping with its renewed focus on social justice for Nigerians in view of the prevailing difficulties of economic poverty, Access to Justice held a sensitization workshop for members of the legal community themed “Expanding Individual Rights and Social Justice in Nigeria through Public Interest Litigation” on the 7tth of August, 2009 at the auditorium of the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, University of Lagos. The workshop was aimed at enlightening participants on the role of the law in improving the social and living conditions of Nigerians.

In his opening remarks, AJ’s Executive Director Mr. Joseph Otteh noted that the society is marked by severe social inequalities with the poor at the receiving end of a system of selective justice. He said that lawyers are often in the forefront of any society’s fight for justice and mentioned a few legal practitioners, especially Chief Gani Fawehinmi who he described as having “dedicated his life to using the law to pursue the public good”.

Mr. Otteh then explained further that PIL is about using the law to empower people, to knock down oppressive barriers to justice, to reclaim and restore the right of social justice for the majority of the people and win back human dignity for the people among other things. click here full text

The resource persons at the workshop were Prof. Ademola Popoola, Dean of Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife: Prof. Bridget Arimond, Prof. of Law at the School of Law, Northwestern University Chicago and Mr. Norrison Quakers, Partner at the Law Firm of Olisa Agbakoba and Associates, Lagos. Prof. Popoola spoke on the topic “Public Interest Lawyering in Nigeria: Developments, Basis and Limitations” while Prof. Arimond spoke on the topic “Protecting and Advancing Rights through Public Interest Law”. On his own part, Mr. Quakers spoke on “Litigation as a Machinery for Political, Economic and Social Reform in Nigeria”.

Copies of the workshop materials are available on request at AJ’s offices in Apapa, Lagos.

The workshop ended with a vote of thanks by Mr. Otteh who announced that in the coming weeks, AJ would be kicking off a campaign of PIL by instituting some actions in the appropriate courts and called for interested legal practitioners to partner with AJ in this regard.

Click here to view papers presented at the workshop 

And also Click here for more pics of the conference