The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria [HURIWA] is
delighted that the legal aid community development services of the Federal
Capital Territory Abuja branch of the National Youth Service Corps has invited
us to share our perspectives on the various ramifications of human rights
violations in Nigeria and to clearly proffer practical panacea to these
disturbing problems.
The first impression in every issue is the most important as the great
father of philosophy Socrates stated many centuries ago. So in the light of the
above philosophical truism, the way to begin this conversation is to understand
what the concept of human rights is and there is only one way of doing this
which is to consult the masters of the scholarly field of human rights for
inspirations.
Mr. Manfred Nowak, is the director of the Ludwig Boltzmann institute of
human rights at the university of Vienna and was at a time the special
Rapporteur on torture at the United Nations. He wrote a beautifully rich
handbook on human rights which he intended it for use by parliamentarians but I
have decided to quote copiously from it to elucidate the essence and import of
the concept of human rights.
This gentleman stated clearly thus; “Human rights have pervaded much of
the political discourse since the Second World War. While the struggle for
freedom from oppression and misery is probably as old as humanity itself, it
was the massive affront to human dignity perpetrated during that War, and the
need felt to prevent such horror in the future, which put the human being back
at the centre and led to the codification at the international level of human
rights and fundamental freedoms. Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations
declares “promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for
fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or
religion” as one of the purposes of the Organisation.”
Mr. Nowak who visited Nigeria in 2007 on official duty continued thus;
“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly in 1948, was the first step towards achieving this objective.
It is seen as the authoritative interpretation of the term “human rights” in
the Charter of the United Nations. The Universal Declaration together with the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both adopted in 1966,
constitute what has become known as the International Bill of Human Rights.
Since 1948, human rights and fundamental freedoms have indeed been codified in
hundreds of universal and regional, binding and non-binding instruments,
touching almost every aspect of human life and covering a broad range of civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights. Thus, the codification of
human rights has largely been completed. As the [then] Secretary-General of the
United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, has recently pointed out, today’s main
challenge is to implement the adopted standards.”
From a lay man’s perspective so as to liberally make for greater
understanding by all, I can say that human rights are those essential make ups
that defines each and everyone of us as human beings. A music legend in Nigeria
who had several brushes with the then military dictatorships of Generals
Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari [as they then were] in the late 1970's
and early 1980’s once depicted human rights concept in the following dramatic
words: “Human rights na my property so you can’t dash me my property” –
meaning that human rights are inherent rights belonging to each and every
individual meaning that governmental authorities or any person for that matter
is not in any position to freely donate these sets of rights to another human
being.
These sets of rights are universal, inalienable, sacrosanct and binding
on all authorities and persons. For instance the chapter four of the Nigerian
Constitution contains most of these fundamental rights like freedom of speech;
right to life; freedom of assembly; freedom of conscience/religion; freedom of
movement and right to respect for the dignity of the human person.
Critically, the freedom from all forms of psychological, physical or
emotional torture is the only human right that cannot be derogated or qualified
and therefore is absolute meaning that on no account should a member of the
human community be subjected to torture of any form by any authority or person;
in or out of government.
Chapter two of the Nigerian Constitution contains certain socio economic
rights such as right to education; right to health and other critically
important rights which out to be respected by all.
In Nigeria, the most prevalent human right issue is the use of arbitrary
arrest by law enforcement operatives and the use of torture against suspected
alleged offenders and this cowardly criminal acts of barbarity goes on all over
the place even as very little is done to bring the perpetrators to trial before
competent courts of law. The frequent use of torture and other unlawful means
by law enforcement operatives must be confronted legally by lawyers and all
activists so the perpetrators are named, shamed, prosecuted and punished. To
work as lawyers to end the regime of torture is an imperative indeed if you
like this duty is a categorical imperative if we will borrow the concept as
developed by the great European philosopher Mr. Immanuel Kant.
Another disturbing human right violation in Nigeria is the attacks
targeted at soft civilian targets by a range of armed terrorists. The rate of
mass killings going on all over is a serious human right phenomenon because if
these killers are not brought to effective justice and punished for their crimes
against humanity then what will happen is that impunity will become the order
of the day and as you all know impunity is the number one enemy of human
rights. Every one of us must use our professional calling and talents to
vigorously campaign against impunity so that the right to life which is the
most basic human right becomes even more relevant and sacrosanct.
Many Nigerians are homeless. Millions are in absolute poverty due to no
cause of theirs. Poverty is a serious human right violation that must be
redressed by all means and to achieve this lofty objective, Nigerians must say
no to corruption and bribery.
It is a notorious fact that a poor person is someone without any modicum
of dignity because poverty subjects humanity to all forms of irrational deprivations.
As lawyers and professionals of different platforms, we must
individually work to bridge the gap between the haves and haves-not.
The danger in not redressing the human right violation that leads to
mass poverty is that the country may witness riotous revolution because a
hungry man is an angry man.
As part of our services to humanity, let us spare out some moments to
render pro-bono legal services to poor litigants whose rights are abused so we
can make Nigeria a better place.
There are hundreds of human rights violations in Nigeria which if we
document within the context of this lecture we may not depart here even in a
year.
Let us reflect on some of those salient human rights development issues
I have highlighted as they also embody other variety of human rights violations
that must be redressed by all persons and especially by the designated
authorities and agencies such as the courts of competent jurisdiction; National
human rights Commission and other sister rights-based organisation.
RIGHTSVIEW appears on Saturdays, in addition to special appearances. The
Columnist, popular activist Emmanuel Onwubiko, is a former Federal Commissioner
of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission and presently National
Coordinator of Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA).
Source News Express
14/03/2015
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