The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), on Wednesday, said it was concerned about the impact of current economic reforms on the enjoyment of human rights in the country.

The Commission, while presenting the February edition of its monthly dashboard on human rights, maintained that images and videos of citizens breaking into warehouses and trucks conveying food stuffs, “do not only portends dangers on the rule of law, but clearly shows a clear violation of the right to dignity of the human person guaranteed by our Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.”

The Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Mr. Anthony Ojukwu, (SAN), said the monthly dashboard was borne out of the necessity by the Commission to systematically monitor, investigate and report on human rights on a national scale, in line with its mandate.

“The dashboard is a unique and distinctive initiative of the Commission that presents to us an infographic report on where we stand on human rights on a monthly basis to enable all actors to monitor the trend of human rights and to be able to take steps in addressing same,” he added.

He said: “Nigeria is facing social and economic challenges which no doubt impact on our enjoyment of human rights today. The January dashboard which we presented last month revealed some interesting facts about the prevalence of domestic violence which had the highest percentage, the February dashboard also showed some interest dimensional shift of violations, revealing another category of victims who are worst hit by the data generated for the month.

“Beyond being indicting, it rather presents itself as a guide and a measurement of our progress to realising 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,” Ojukwu, SAN, added.

Meanwhile, in the dashboard that was presented by Mr. Hillary Ogbonna, the Commission disclosed that it received a total of 1, 484 complaints in February.

It noted that whereas 95 of the complaints were against state actors, 28 of them against non-state actors, 370 petitions bordered on domestic violence and assault, 45 on right to life, 550 on child rights, while 7 were on disability rights.

The Commission further disclosed that while 138 of the cases came from the North West region of the country, it received 393 complaints from the North East, 481 from North Central, 179 from South West, 146 from South East, while a total of 149 complaints were received from the South South geo-political zone. (Vanguard)

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