CEHRD responds to environmental, human rights, rural health and underdevelopment problems in the Niger Delta.
The Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) is a rural-based, non-profit organisation founded on 15 August 1999 by conservationists, environmentalists, activists and health workers in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
CEHRD takes a holistic approach to the conflict in the Niger Delta by responding to environmental, human rights, rural health and underdevelopment problems in the Niger Delta.
CEHRD believes the Niger Delta people are denied their rights to a healthy environment. The exploitation of petroleum in this resource rich area is causing severe environmental damage and encouraging human rights violations. CEHRD tries to connect the rural Niger Delta communities by equipping people with the basic knowledge of their situation and encouraging them to address the issues themselves in a non-violent manner.
In the poor situation of the Niger Delta Region, young unemployed adults seek financial and physical security by joining armies, armed gangs or "cults". The influx of cheap small arms has increased the violence drastically. Therefore, the CEHRD included an anti-arms project into their human rights programme. Officials on this project monitor small arms and their misuse in the hands of government security forces, militia, cult groups, and gangsters, and assess the consequences of small arms on local people.