We Receive Over 1m Human Rights Cases Yearly – NHRC

We Receive Over 1m Human Rights Cases Yearly – NHRC

The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Tony Ojukwu Esq, has revealed that over one million human rights-related cases are received every year by the Commission.

Ojukwu made the disclosure, in Abuja, during a press conference

organised by the NHRC to commemorate the third edition of the Annual National Human Rights Awards which he said will be holding on December 10, 2021, in Abuja.

Ojukwu, who lamented the unfortunate increase in human rights abuses and violations which he said has climaxed due to the activities of armed bandits and insurgents predominantly in the northern parts of the country, also, reiterated that his Commission was

leveraging on the Federal Government’s programme of deradicalisation and rehabilitation of Boko Haram fighters by instituting a peace and reconciliation platform starting from the north-eastern region of the country.

“We want to tackle issues little by little to prevent them from

escalating into major problems,” he stated, adding that “the project intends to penetrate the local communities that are worst hit in the region,in order to interact with the community leaders to see how we can reconcile victims and perpetrators to prevent further destructions of lives and properties as well avoid situations of further

displacements.”

While commenting on the forthcoming Annual National Human Rights Award, the NHRC boss said the nominations will be in three categories; federal government agencies, state governments and civil society organizations. He further revealed that the selection process will be done independently by members of the public.

“Members of the public are expected to select from list of nominations through voting. The indicators for selecting deserving MDAs for the award includes; the impact of the MDAs work in the enjoyment of human rights in Nigeria, the level of compliance of the MDA to court judgements as well as the degree of accessibility of the MDA services to the public, the extent to which the MDA complies with the 5% employment ratio of persons with disabilities and the impact of the MDA’s work or contributions in promoting social justice and eliminating discriminatory attitudes and practices,” he stated.