Clement Nwankwo Nigeria
	"We shall continue to strive and push to achieve an accountable and responsible government that derives its legitimacy from the Nigerian people."

Clement Nwankwo, at the Martin Ennals Award Ceremony
in London, March 1996.

Winner of the 1996 Martin Ennals Award
for Human Rights Defender

Clement Nwankwo is the Executive Director of the Constitutional Rights Project (CRP) in Nigeria, which aims to ensure that Nigerian legislation conforms with international standards and provides legal assistance to victims of human rights abuses. Through his leadership, the organisation has become one of the most outspoken and respected national human rights groups in Nigeria, as well as the Civil Liberties Organisation, which he co-founded.

He has shown enormous courage, strength and creativity. In particular, during the repression of the Abacha regime, he and his colleagues continued to insist openly that democratic values needed to be taught and implemented. The hazardous and uncertain conditions under which Clement has to work have only served to strengthen his determination to bring the plight of Nigerian people to international attention and to stand up for his deals.

Ironically, it was in Geneva that Clement Nwankwo was arrested and ill-treated in 1997 when he was falsely accused of theft. Only after the intervention of the member organisations of the Martin Ennals Foundation was his conviction overturned.