Ireland offers post graduate study on human rights

A fellowship for a Nigerian to study Human Rights at post graduate level has been floated by the Government of Ireland.
Making the disclosure at an event to commemorate the legacy of Roger Casemen, an Irish human rights crusader in the Nineteenth century who worked in Calabar, Cross River State, Ambassador Sean Hoy said the fellowship is opened to a Nigerian citizen in any university in Ireland.
Hoy said: “It is part of the determination of Ireland to promote human rights study in Nigeria.
“The establishment of Casement Fellowship is for qualified Nigerian citizen to study human rights at post graduate level in any university of choice in Ireland.”
According to the envoy, the details of the fellowship would be worked out and when ready, it would be made public for interested Nigerians to apply.
Ambassador Hoy said the memory of Casement was very important because of the roles he played in the build up to liberate Africa from slavery and the danger of colonialism.
In the brief history of Casement, he stated that the Irish came to Nigeria in 1891 to work at the British Consulate in Calabar when he was 28 years old.
He spent four years working under Major Claude Mac Donald who was tasked with exploring the Cross River region where he took interest in various local languages and superstitions.
Ambassador Hoy stated that Casement became famous for the damming reports with which he criticized the exploitative practices of the rubber industry in the Congo and in the Amazon.
“His powerful advocacy for the human rights of indigenous populations in Africa and Latin America and the damming reports on atrocities renders Casement a forefather of the human rights movement,” he said.