The American Bar Association (ABA) has honoured human rights advocate, Adeola Austin Oyinlade, with the 2021 ABA International Human Rights award.
The award, which is one of the association’s top human rights honours, was established to honour an individual or organisation that has made an exceptional contribution to the advancement of human rights outside of the United States.
President of ABA, Patricia Lee Refo, praised Oyinlade’s contribution to the African Union on the implementation of the African Youth Charter.
‘[He has] advanced solutions to human rights issues across Africa, including the South Sudan political crisis, the Central African Republic crisis, the Congo Democratic Republic armed conflict and the Libyan peace talks’, Refo said.
The Nigerian lawyer is the founder of Constitutional Rights Awareness and Liberty Initiative, an organisation that works toward expanding the frontiers of human rights and democracy in Nigeria by educating people about their rights and responsibilities and by providing legal assistance.
Also, the graduate of the University of Lagos, Nigeria, began hosting a human rights empowerment radio programme that educates Nigerians on the scope of their constitutional rights in 2008.
The radio programme simplifies listeners’ understanding of the law and assists to seek justice for human rights abuses.
In 2016, Oyinlade launched the first-ever human rights empowerment app known as ‘Know Your Rights Nigeria’.
The innovative app simplifies human rights and constitutional safeguards in several languages, including English, Pidgin and other major regional languages.
Users also have the option to chat with Oyinlade and a team of 50 lawyers for free legal support on human rights issues and to report human rights abuses.
ABA, which is the largest voluntary association of lawyers in the world, works to improve the administration of justice, and promotes programmes that assist lawyers and judges in their work.
Source: ABA
Photo source: Adeola Austin Oyinlade
