By Emma Okereh
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), on Friday, called on the federal government to step up security in all parts of the country so that the spate of insecurity can come down. The call was made at the monthly violation dashboard presentation of the commission for the month of March.
Speaking at the event, its executive secretary , Tony Ojukwu who noted that the Friday presentation was the third in the series, frowned at the increasing level of violation of rights of citizens by both state actors and non state actors.
He was particularly pained by the spate of kidnapping of school children and wondered what has happened to the federal government safe school initiative. He therefore urged the government to reinvigorate the initiative as it cannot shirk its responsibility of protecting the citizens, particularly children to go to school without fear.
He disclosed that statistics of human rights violations in the country within the month of March, 2024 indicates that 1,580 complaints were recorded by the commission.
The Executive Secretary took particular note of the increased wave of violations of children’s rights which took a huge share of the total complaints statistics recorded by the commission with 542 complaints.
The NHRC Executive Secretary said: “Looking at the report on the violation of child rights for last month, it is important that I seize this occasion to address a matter that has deeply troubled us as a nation which is the recent abduction of school children in Nigeria which opens us up to the grave challenges, we face in ensuring the safety and security of our children.
“We hold it dear as a Commission that it is the primary duty of government to protect the rights of individuals to life and security. We have a duty to protect the most vulnerable in our society and there can be no greater duty than the protection of our children who are mostly exposed to various forms of human rights violations by state and non-state actors.
“From Chibok to Buni Yadi, to Dapchi and now Chikun, we are really concerned because attacks on school children violate a plethora of national, regional and international human rights obligations to which Nigeria is not only a party but has enacted constitutional and legislative frameworks to protect these rights.”
He expressed the Commission’s solidarity with the families of the abducted school children and commended the actions of the armed forces and security agencies that have secured the release of some of them just as he stressed the need for governments at all levels to step up in its responsibility to protect Nigerians from nefarious activities of state and non-state actors.
Dr. Ojukwu assured the commitment of the Commission to work with relevant agencies of government to ensure that those who violate these rights have no sanctuary to hide but are made to face the law, adding that it requires the collaboration of all in seeing that the next report indicates a downward slide in the rate of violations of the rights of children.
He also commiserated with the Armed Forces and the Nigerian Police Force on the loss of lives of officers and men in Delta state and other parts of Nigeria, describing it as “national tragedies with huge impacts on the enjoyment of human rights.”
However, Ojukwu said, ” While we recognize the critical role of the Military in maintaining peace and security, it is imperative that their actions are guided by the principles of rule of law and respect for human rights even in the face of attacks. We are monitoring the situation and we are working with other relevant stakeholders to ensure that human rights are not compromised at any stage of intervention.”
While making full presentations on the human rights situation in 36 states of the federation for the month of March, 2024, the NHRC Senior Human Adviser, Hillary Ogbonna, disclosed that from January to March, the commission recorded about 5,000 complaints on human rights violations.
Giving a breakdown of the statistics on complaints for the month of March, he enumerated that out of the total 1,580 complaints: Complaints against state actors, 94; Domestic violence, 471; violations of children’s rights, 542; Against non-state actors, 32; Private Sector Actors, 36; Economic Social and Cultural rights, 123; rights to life, 71; persons with disabilities, 3; Others, 157; and referred complaints, 24.
In terms of breakdown based geopolitical zones, Mr. Ogbonna disclosed that the North Central topped the lead with 468 complaints on human rights violations. Others include North East, 374; South South, 278; South West, 197; North West, 161 and South East, 152.
He noted that 499 killings and kidnappings occured while issues involving human dignity in anti-poverty palliatives led to the death of four persons in Nasarawa and Bauchi states.
The presentation of the Human Rights Dashboard for the month of March witnessed in attendance representatives from Civil Society Organisations including Nigeria Bar Association, Switzerland Embassy, United Nations, among others.
