For relentless fight against rights violations: Agbor Balla wins American Bar Association award.

A release from the Communication Division of the American Bar Association announced the prestigious recognition in Chicago, USA, July 2, 2024. 

“The American Bar Association is proud to announce that Felix Agbor Nkongho, founder and president of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa in Cameroon, will receive the American Bar Association’s 2024 International Human Rights Award,” partly reads the release. 

The award, it should be noted, is presented annually on behalf of six ABA entities: the Centre for Global Programs, the Centre for Human Rights, the Rule of Law Initiative, the Civil Rights and Social Justice Section, the International Law Section and the Litigation Section. 

The award, the release detailed, recognises “exceptional achievements by an individual or organisation as a champion and/or defender of human rights outside the United States, consistent with international human rights law”.

Nominees for the award, the release added, are those whose contributions have “demonstrated leadership, dedication, courage and perseverance in advancing human rights”.

The award will be presented at a dinner honouring international guests on Thursday, August 1, during the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association in Chicago.

The 2023 International Human Rights Award, it should be recalled, was won by the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Tassaduq Hussain Jillani.

ABA’s award committee hails Agbor Balla 

In a statement after the proclamation of Agbor Balla as winner of the prestigious award, the Chair of ABA’s International Human Rights Award selection committee, Mark Agrast, hailed Agbor Balla’s outstanding prowess. 

“Mr. Nkongho stood out, among an exceptionally strong field of nominees, for his courageous and principled advocacy in support of human rights and the peaceful settlement of disputes,” Mark Agrast said. 

About ABA 

The American Bar Association, ABA, is the largest voluntary association of lawyers in the world. 

As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programmes that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world on the importance of the rule of law. 

Agbor Balla, the man, the myth 

Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho, popularly known as Agbor Balla, is a distinguished Anglophone Cameroonian human rights lawyer and human rights defender. 

He has been defending and advancing rights issues through his nonprofit organisation, Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, CHRDA.

The native of Manyu Division of the South West Region of Cameroon, grew up in Great Soppo, Buea, where he attended CBC Primary School. He obtained his GCE Ordinary Level in Form Four at St. Joseph’s College, Buea. 

He then moved to the Cameroon College of Arts and Science, CCAS Kumba. He later moved to the then Musole GCE Evening Classes after he was wrongfully dismissed from CCAS Kumba, for ‘subversive’ writing, popularly known as “Lavoir”, which was an article challenging abuses and wrong actions by school administrators.

This marked his start of activism in his youthful days. In an interview, Agbor Balla described his dismissal as a blessing in disguised. He said it earned him a meeting with the Late Bate Besong, renowned Anglophone playwright, poet and critic.

Agbor Balla studied at the University of Yaounde, graduating with an LLB in English Private Law in 1993. He obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Nigerian Law School, LLM in International and Comparative Law from Vrije Universiteit, Brussels; and LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.

Felix Agbor Nkongho worked as a researcher at the Centre for International Law in Belgium, as an assistant legal officer at Sierra Leone International Criminal Court and a human rights officer at United Nations office in Afghanistan and Congo.

He worked as a post-graduate lecturer at the Pan-African Institute for Development-West Africa and lecturer of human rights and legal issues at the University of Buea, Faculty of Law and Political Science.

He has served as president of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium; president of the Fako Lawyers’ Association, former vice president of the African Bar Association; Central African Region and is a member of numerous African and international law associations. 

Barrister Nkongho was the leader of the civil society movement that challenged the marginalisation of and systemic discrimination against Anglophone Cameroonians.

The movement aimed to restore the full recognition of the rights of Anglophones in Cameroon. 

In 2016, under the banner of the Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, he joined other prominent activists in leading peaceful protests of Anglophone lawyers and teachers to express their grievances against the increasing marginalisation of the English language, the Common Law in the courts, and schools of Anglophone Cameroon. 

Agbor Balla not new to national, int’l recognitions 

Agbor Balla has received multiple recognitions for his fight against rights violations in Cameroon and beyond. 

On the international scale, he received the RFK Human Rights Award in 2022, the Irwin Cotler Human Rights Award from the High Commissioner of Canada in Cameroon in 2020 and in 2019, he received the Central Africa Shield Award from African Defenders.

At the national level, he was 2019 and 2020 Human Rights Champion Award winner from The Guardian Post and 2018 Human Rights Activist of the Year Award winner from The SCOOP Media Group. He also won the Nelson Mandela Memorial Award from the Nkafu Policy Institute in 2018.

Agbor Balla the int’l rights titan 

Agbor Balla has published severally and spoken extensively on human rights law and states’ obligations to prevent human rights violations. 

His recent publication, Unheard Voices, earned him an Award for Human Rights Publication of The Year, by the Victoria International Media Merit Awards in 2023.

The renowned human rights defender and legal luminary, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, was named the Country Director of the Pan African body, Good Leadership Advocacy for Africa, GLAFA.

He was appointed in a letter signed by the president of the strategic continental body, Dr. O’Diakpo Obire. 

Agbor Balla has mentored hundreds who now serve in various UN Agencies and diplomatic missions across the globe and locally.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0: 3158 of Thursday July 4, 2024