ABUJA – The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday urged Nigerians not to allow constituted authorities or individuals to trample on their rights as human beings.
The commission’s Deputy Director, Legal Services, Ms Aver Gavar, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that Nigerians needed to claim and assert their rights at all times.
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Gavar gave the advice against the backdrop of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Day observed annually on Dec. 10 to mark the anniversary of the presentation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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“Nigerians have sat on their rights for a long time based on ignorance and this is traceable to a long period of military regime.
“So we need to create confidence in the public that when you know your rights and you claim or assert them you will be supported.
“That is the role of the commission – to make people confident that the commission will support them.“
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According to Gavar, the theme for the 2014 Human Rights Day: “Human Rights 365“, is a call on all Nigerians to ensure that they know their rights and assert them every day of the year.
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“This year’s theme talks about 365 days; it is about living your life; it is about knowing your rights and living your rights every single day of the year.
“It is about speaking out; it is about building confidence; it places a lot of burden on the commission that we need to do more sensitisation, more awareness creation.
“It places a lot of responsibility on all human rights institutions globally that there needs to be more human rights education until the citizens can speak out and claim and enforce their rights.“
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The deputy director said that the commission was working hard to be pro-active rather than reactive as part of its commitment to ensuring that Nigerians had the right information on what to do when their rights were violated.
“The overall mandate of the commission is to create an enabling environment for the enjoyment of human rights.
“And the easiest way for us to achieve this is to create awareness. To bring about public awareness on human rights so that citizens and people resident in Nigeria would become aware of their rights.“
Gavar said that the 2012 amendment of the Act establishing the commission served as a confidence booster for a lot of Nigerians as reported cases of human rights violation doubled within a short period.
She said the commission was currently receiving more than 2000 complaints compared to the nearly 1000 complaints it used to receive in the past.
The deputy director said the commission sometimes used compensation and restitution as tools for addressing cases of injustice where cases of human rights abuse were established.
Gavar, who also heads the Focal Areas Unit of the commission, said that the 2014 Human Rights Day celebration would begin with a short walk that would terminate at the auditorium of the commission in Maitama.
She said that statements from the UN Secretary General and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other messages of goodwill would be read at the auditorium. (NAN)