The Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), has called on the National Assembly to institute a mechanism to track cases of human rights violation across the country.
PLAC Executive Director, Mr Clement Nwankwo, who made the call at the just concluded two-day consultative meeting on strategy for engaging the National Assembly Committees on human rights violation in Abuja said, the call was necessary to get the national assembly to respond to some of the gaps in human rights law.
According to him, the goal is to assure organisations involved in the protection of human rights that the national assembly has a mechanism in place to respond to their policy and advocacy issues.
He expressed concern about the increasing incidences of human rights violations in the country as well as the increasing cost of litigation.
This, according to him, is making it difficult for citizens to challenge human rights violations in court.
“It is important that the Senate and House Committee on Human Rights work out a mechanism to address the problem of human rights violations in the country,” he added.
He explained that the aim of the meeting was to bring together civil society organisations and human rights organisations, working on human rights issues, to engage with the Human Right Committee in the Senate and House of Representatives.
“It is also to see if civil society organisations will have the opportunity of taking their advocacies beyond the media to the legislature, the highest policy making body in the country.
“We also want to strengthen the working synergy between the National Assembly and human rights organisations,” Nwankwo said.
He explained that part of the responsibilities was to bring officials who violate human rights to account, create awareness and enlighten security personnel on the need to respect and protect human rights.
He described awareness creation as “very critical”, adding that Nigerians need to know their rights and how to seek redress when such rights were violated and where to seek support.
