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Human Rights: Partnership With Military Is Yielding Results, NHRC Tells UN Envoy

The National Human Rights Commission’s involvement in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents in northeast Nigeria has impacted on the professionalism of the Nigerian Military, … Continue reading Human Rights: Partnership With Military Is Yielding Results, NHRC Tells UN Envoy


soldiers and officersThe National Human Rights Commission’s involvement in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents in northeast Nigeria has impacted on the professionalism of the Nigerian Military, a senior official of the commission said on Tuesday.

At a meeting on Tuesday with the Regional Representative of the United Nations High Commission of Human Rights, Mr Andrea Ori and a team of human rights experts, the Executive Secretary of the Commission Professor Bem Angwe, said the military had observed the rules of engagement with the insurgents to avoid civilian casualties.

The rights commission’s boss also acknowledged the support of the UN system especially the UNDP and National Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) which he noted had deployed monitors to the North East and North Central zones for the purpose of monitoring human rights situation of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the area.

He also informed the UN delegation that the Commission had continually engaged the Federal and State governments on the need to provide entrepreneurial skills to the IDPs while facilitating their safe and voluntary return to places that are safe and habitable.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, who also doubles as the Chair of the Network of National Human Rights Institutions in West Africa, will be organising a conference on Human Rights and Terrorism which will point the way forward as well as evolve measures to re-integrate victims of terrorism.

According to Professor Angwe, the Executive Secretary of the sub-regional body, Mr Saka Azimazi, would give an update on the reports of human rights situation of member states before the Annual General Assembly to take place later in the year.

Earlier, the Regional Representative of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Andrea Ori commended the Commission for protecting the electoral rights of Nigerians and ensuring a successful advocacy against electoral violence during the 2015 general elections.

The UN envoy noted that the Commission, under Professor Angwe had made giant strides toward entrenching a culture of human rights to the extent that respect for the sanctity of the electoral process had come to stay in Nigeria and urged other countries in the sub-region to borrow a leaf from this.