Judiciary
Mr Tony Ojukwu, Executive Secretary (ES) of National Human Rights Commission, on Wednesday in Abuja, urged incoming ministers to mainstream human rights in development policies of government.
Ojukwu who made the call while addressing newsmen.
According to the ES, the legitimacy of the government in a democratic setting depended on its ability to protect the people, respect their rights and promote same.
” Therefore every organ of government must work towards and align all their operations towards promoting, respecting and protecting the rights of citizens,” he said.
” Mainstreaming human rights into government operations can be achieved through participation, involvement of the people in the formulation and implementation of
government programmes, policies and activities.
” Accountability in implementing the programmes, policies, activities and ensuring that people benefit from the implementation” Ojukwu added.
He further urged the incoming ministers to ensure gender equality and non-discrimination in the programmes, policies and activities.
Ojukwu said that important avenue of mainstreaming human rights into government operations was through policy intervention which had been encapsulated into a policy document called the National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in Nigeria (NAP)
According to him, there were various positive expected outcomes of mainstreaming human rights into government operations by the incoming ministers .
” The government will be seen as a people’s centred government, the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs) will be achieved to the credit of the government of the day.
” Insecurity will be highly reduced and high cost of governance in the security sector will be reduced and funds will be available for channeling to other areas of need in national development.
” There will be increased foreign direct investments in Nigeria and the fight against security will be strengthened and made sustainable through the culture of accountability embedded in the human rights based approach,” the ES said.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 43 ministers were sworn in on Wednesday, by the president, Muhammad Buhari at the Federal Executive Council Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja.(NAN)
_AUG 21, 2019 @14:24 GMT |
Tags: NHRC boss urges incoming ministers to mainstream human rights in govt. policies
