NHRC identifies MDAs, agencies accused of violating rights of Nigerians

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has identified the Ministries, Departments (and Agencies) (MDAs), and other agencies accused by several Nigerians of allegedly violating their fundamental rights.

The NHRC’s Senior Human Rights Adviser to the NHRC Executive Secretary, Hilary Ogbonna, revealed the affected state actors in the Commission’s February 2024 Human Rights Situation Dashboard made available to Nairametrics on Wednesday.

Based on the report, the total human rights complaints received by NHRC across Nigeria in February stood at 1484 with 95 of those complaints made against state actors like the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Rural Electrification Agency, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission(NidCOM), and Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC).

Other state actors identified by the report are the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Military, the Nigerian Airforce, a Federal University, courts, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The NHRC dashboard stated the nature of the human rights complaints it received in February across the nation.

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They include the denial of employment benefits, denial of inheritance rights, labour rights, discrimination, forced marriage, sexual abuse, and child abandonment.

The complaints received by NHRC were broken down as follows:

The NHRC Executive Secretary, Tony Ojukwu said the monthly dashboard on the state of human rights is borne out of the necessity to monitor, investigate, and report on human rights systematically on a national scale in line with the Commission’s mandate.

Ojukwu said, “The February 2024 Dashboard is a graphic representation of the state of human rights in the country. Beyond being indicting, it rather presents itself as a guide and a measurement of our progress to realizing the human rights of every Nigerian. It provides information that will trigger a chain of multi-faceted actions on tackling insecurity, poverty, and inequalities in Nigeria. For instance, the upsurge in violence, killings and kidnappings recorded in February should concern every arm of our government.”

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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.