By Emma Okereh
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in collaboration with the UN Office in Nigeria, Friday, launched a call center short code 6472 at the 75th anniversary campaign on Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and other activities to commemorate the day.
At a press briefing to commemorate the 2022 event, the executive secretary of the commission, Tony Ojukwu explained that the short call centre short code will provide an easy access to the Commission for complaints on human rights violations. The executive secretary also explained that the effort is geared towards simplifying human rights complaints and bringing easy communication to the door steps of users since it comes at no cost.
While appreciating the contributions of the media towards the successes recorded by the Commission in discharging its statutory responsibilities, Ojukwu solicited for greater commitment to getting the message of this year’s message of the UDHR to the people.
In his opening statement, the United National Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. Matthias Schmale expressed worry that 20 million out-of-school children still exist in Nigeria. He noted that development can only occur when human rights issues are embedded in every aspect of governance process.
After goodwill message by Mo Yahaya Resident Representative, UNDP, Mrs Ifeoma Nwakama, Director, Human Rights Institute, took time to reel out programmes and activities lined up for the week. The 2022 human rights day is a week-long activity that kicked off with the pressure briefing and launch and ends next week Saturday with an Awards Night. It will also feature a town hall meeting with presidential candidates for 2023 elections where their plans for human rights issues will be on the front burner.
Highlights of the occasion was the unveiling of UDHR75 Logo by Chief Ojukwu and Mathias Schmale. It was immediately followed by the official launch of NHRC client response mechanism short code number 6472 to further improve user experience. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) instituted the Client Response Mechanism with funding from EU-UN funded Spotlight Initiative project under United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) in 2019. The Authority gathered that since then, the client response mechanism has received over 12,695 calls on human rights issues.
