CHESTERTOWN, MD—Nigerian human-rights attorney Anietie Ewang will lecture Monday, March 16, at Washington College on human rights can be advanced in developing countries struggling to provide basic needs such as housing, healthcare, education and safe food and water. Her talk, which is free and open to the public, takes place at 4:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, Toll Science Center.  

Ewang is staff attorney for the Social & Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC), an independent organization established in Lagos in 1995 to promote  and protect economic, social and cultural rights in Nigeria.  She will share case studies from SERAC as she discusses the challenges facing Nigeria’s government and judiciary and recounts what human-rights organizations are doing to drive change at the grassroots level.  

In her role at the Center, Ewang conducts legal research, documents human rights violations and litigates cases on behalf of victims, especially those in urban poor communities. She has led several campaigns at the federal and state government levels to advocate for issues related to health, housing and water. In addition, she has represented the interests of thousands of Nigerians in court cases and public inquiries and testified on their behalf in many forums.        

Currently a Fellow of the Global Network for Public Interest Law and a Research Scholar at the Columbia Law School, Ewang is drafting and championing guidelines for forced evictions related to development projects. She is following the principles outlined in the United Nations Comprehensive Human Rights Guideline on Development-based Displacements.        

Ewang obtained an LLB from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Ghana, and was called to the Nigerian Bar as a Barrister/Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 2009. Her March 16 talk at the College is sponsored by the Center for Environment and Society and its Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program.