Justice for Jos
On the night of March 7, 2010, villages in the vicinity of the Nigerian city of Jos became the scenes of an unprovoked massacre that claimed the lives of an estimated 500 Christians who rushed from their burning homes into the waiting hands of a Muslim mob armed with crude weapons. In the face of this tragedy, AI has joined with a global coalition of religious liberty defenders, The Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP), decrying the massacre and setting forth a number of recommendations to end the sectarian violence.
AI has joined with CLASFON - The Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria - to begin the Justice for Jos Project. Jos has too often been the scene of this sort of sectarian violence due to its location on the fault line between the Muslim north and the Christian south. Again and again, the area has erupted but this time is different, because this time, for the first time, the perpetrators of this atrocity are in legal custody. This means AI's special counsel for this project, Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian lawyer who was born in Jos, along with his team of CLASFON lawyers, has the unique opportunity to challenge the culture of impunity which has been a direct contributor to the continuing violence of the area. 
In addition the Justice for Jos Project will:
- Provide immediate help for displaced families and survivors as well as seek to create early warning alert systems in the communities.
- Work with local businesses and missionaries to create economic empowerment projects to engage Christian and Muslim youth in gainful employment that will keep them out of trouble and build bridges of commonality
- Monitor the performance of the legal system to ensure all perpetrators are brought to justice.
In May and June, 2010 Advocates International has, through its International Counsel on Nigeria, Emmanuel Ogebe, flew to Nigeria where he had meetings with national officials of the Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria (CLASFON). He traveled to Jos where he met with the local chapter of CLASFON and reported that the lawyers have been working around the clock to provide legal defense to innocent people who were arbitrarily rounded up by the military after the national outcry resulting from the crisis.
"The lawyers here are real heroes," says Emmanuel, "The local chair of CLASFON had his home burnt down during the crisis. He is literally living out of a box with his family. Yet he makes the time to go to court in defense of others. Talk about true sacrifice. He was himself a refugee or displaced person but for the kindness of another lawyer who took his family in." AI's Int. Counsel was in court monitoring the trials for two straight weeks. "It is quite a delicate situation. The judge is new and a Muslim woman so there are lots of sensitivities. It does not help that she is a federal judge trying crimes that occurred within the jurisdiction of a state. However she came across as fair and firm."
More about AI and RLP's efforts in the Justice for Jos Project: