Community Action Program Committees (CAPCOMs)

Human Rights Defender:

Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC)

Action:

Aiming at taking full advantage of the inherent collective action potential of economic and social rights, SERAC cultivates relationships with remote communities in Nigeria, and where available, works through existing organizational structures within host communities to mobilize around ESC rights issues. Comprised of community leaders and representatives, the Community Action Program Committee (CAPCOM) serves as the rallying point for this work and is currently active in twelve communities nationwide. Particular care is taken in each CAPCOM to ensure the active and full participation of women.

Importantly, SERAC makes it a point to facilitate exchange visits among different communities, and more experienced community leaders are used as speakers and trainers in other communities. Increasingly, this approach is strengthening ties between distant communities and helping to cultivate a common platform for further action.

CAPCOM has given great leverage to its host communities. It has emboldened them; strengthened their control of their own internal affairs; raised their profile and capacity to engage officials in dialogue around matters that concern them; and has greatly enhanced their visibility. Many of the older CAPCOMs such as the Maroko community operate with little reference to SERAC because their leaders have become highly skilled in advocacy and negotiation. SERAC continues, however, to provide technical, legal and other logistical support. In the Maroko example, CAPCOM remains highly instrumental to the success of the Maroko struggle for resettlement. To wit, the current government in Lagos State has now officially accepted legal responsibility for the community’s demolition and therefore a duty to provide compensation and resettlement.

In another region of Nigeria, the CAPCOM in Ozorro, Delta State has been at the forefront of efforts to hold Shell Petroleum Development Corporation (Nig. Ltd.) accountable for the company’s dumping of toxic waste in Ibo Bush, Erovie land. Pressure mobilized by SERAC and the local CAPCOM led the federal government to establish the Joint Investigation Panel (JIP) that is mandated to inquire into the toxicity of the substances injected at the location and to propose further measures to the government.