Hilary Ogbonna
Right to Shelter: NHRC identifies demolitions among human rights violations complaints across Nigeria, others
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has identified demolitions of properties and confiscation as part of the human rights violations complaints it received in April 2024 nationwide.
The NHRC’s Senior Human Rights Adviser to the NHRC Executive Secretary, Hilary Ogbonna, disclosed this during the Commission’s April 2024 Human Rights Situation Dashboard presentation made available to Nairametrics on Friday.
The commission disclosed that the right to Housing and Shelter is part of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) every Nigerian is entitled to enjoy, subject to the observance of relevant laws.
According to the dashboard, a total of 19,470 complaints were received by the Commission, in April.
Out of the 19,470 complaints, 3695 ESCR complaints were received across the nation while the top ten states with high human rights complaints were listed as “Borno, Kano, Plateau, Taraba, Lagos, Kaduna, Bauchi, Osun, Abia, Rivers.”
Under the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(ESCR), NHRC listed the rights allegedly violated to include “Right to Education, Right to Health, Denial of Employment Benefits, Denial of Inheritance rights, Discrimination, Right to Housing/Shelter (Demolition, confiscation etc).”
The NHRC highlighted the main violators of these rights to be the Nigerian Police, parents, military, private sector actors, bandits and militia groups.
Record Of Complaints
The NHRC dashboard stated that the nature of the human rights complaints received across the affected states included the denial of employment benefits, discrimination, cultism, and violence among others.
The commission stated that when compared with previous months’ records, April’s complaints represent an upsurge in human rights violations across Nigeria.
The complaints were broken down as follows:
- Against State Actors-5259
- Domestic Violence-4317
- Violation of Children’s Rights-1457
- Against Non-State Actors-2877
- Against Private Sector Actors-1063
- Complaints on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR)-3695
- Right to life-110
- Persons with disabilities-136
- Others-365
- Referred Complaints-191
What the NHRC ES said
The NHRC Executive Secretary, Tony Ojukwu said the analysis of human rights violations across broad will provide policymakers, international partners, law enforcement agencies, civil society actors and the media with the opportunity to gain insights into the evolving human rights landscape in Nigeria and explore collaborative avenues for addressing emerging challenges.
He stressed that the dashboard provides information that will trigger a chain of multi-faceted actions from every arm of government in tackling insecurity, poverty and inequalities in our country.
Ojukwu said,
“Beyond providing a graphical presentation of the human rights situation, the April dashboard also serves as a guide and a measurement of our progress in realising the human rights of every Nigerian.”
The Commission also seized the moment to call for stricter legislation against cultism in Nigeria; its dashboard, having shown violence to be on the high side.
The commission maintained that cultism is one of the activities that threatens the peace and prosperity of a country.
The Commission stated,
“Cultist groups are also known to deplore acts of torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment on their members and individuals in society who do not align with their beliefs and opinions.
“All of these indicate that cultism’s assault on human rights in Nigeria is devastating and multifaceted.
“It strikes at the core of education, freedom of expression, right to life and security, and socio-economic development. Its continued existence poses threats to our country’s peace and prosperity.
“The National Human Rights Commission therefore calls for strict legislation that bans cultism in tertiary institutions, whilst not affecting the rights of student populations from forming societies and organisations that promote human rights, as well as intellectual curiosity and diversity.”
What you should know
- The NHRC is the federal government agency responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights as enshrined in the 1999 constitution and other relevant local and international laws and statutes.
- Based on the NHRC (Amendment) Act, 2010, the Commission is mandated to publish and periodically submit to the President, the National Assembly, the Judiciary, State, and Local Governments, reports on the state of human rights promotion and protection in Nigeria.
- Nairametrics previously reported that the total human rights complaints received by NHRC across Nigeria in February stood at 1484
