Right To Peaceful Assembly And Association

By Ubong S. Ebong Esq. -
#Know_Your_Rights

KYR has been absent for a bit because we have been working on some upgrades which are meant to make our blog bigger & better. As part of the upgrades, KYR is now accepting scholarly short articles from learned minds on legal analysis of trending societal issues. So if you wish to be published on our blog & other media outlets, kindly drop a message & I'll get back to you.

Now to our gist today, we will be briefly discussing your right to peaceful assembly & association. Basically the break down of this right are:
1) You have the right to freely organize or partake in an assembly of your choice. This means a physical and voluntary meeting between persons. In view of advances in modern technology, this right to peaceful assembly now includes non-physical meetings such as webinars, social media groups etc.
2) You have the right to associate with any person or persons of your choice.
3) You have the right to form or belong to any political party, trade union or any other group/association for the purpose of protecting your interests.

This right is quite straightforward however it is subject to the following conditions/limitations/restrictions:
1) Whatever association or assembly you create or join must be peaceful, not violent.
2) Your association or assembly must not be for an illegal or criminal purpose.
3) In the case of political parties, its creation, operation & all other activities must be subject to the rules & guidelines prescribed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
4) Your association or assembly is subject to the overriding decisions of the appropriate superior authorities on the grounds of:
a) public defence,
b) public morality,
c) public safety,
d) public health,
e) public order,
f) and for the protection of the rights and freedom of other persons.

In summary, you have the right to form alliances to protect your interests whether in your workplace or your school or your community or place of business etc, and no one (not your employer nor your school authority nor the government) can subdue this right. But in doing so, you have to be conscious of the exceptions to this right which the law allows.

#KYR



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