NHC trains stakeholders to address human rights abuses across seven states 

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has launched the use of digital tools to support advocacy and rapid response to address human rights violations in hard-to-reach locations and enhance protection for displaced and forcibly displaced persons across seven states.

Tony Ojukwu, the Executive Secretary of the Commission, stated this during a
capacity building on crowdsourcing human rights protection mechanisms under the NHRC/UNHCR Project for the Protection of internally displaced persons and forcibly displaced persons through information/data collection and documentation in Nigeria, held in Maiduguri.

According to him, the stakeholders include civil society organisations, community-based organisations, ministries, departments and agencies, community protection action groups, human rights monitors, internally displaced persons and forcibly displaced persons.

Tony urged the Federal Government to utilise digital tools to enhance justice administration in the country.

He highlighted the need for timely, verified, and actionable early warning information on security incidents, displacement movements, and human rights protection risks to ensure rapid response and the protection of displaced persons and host communities.

He said, “The exercise is aimed at training stakeholders who are going to play a role, so that they will be able to play their role effectively during the implementation of the project, the training is to make sure that all the stakeholders know exactly what they’re supposed to do, how they are going to synergize, because you can see a cross section of stakeholders across the table, and to know how they are going to work together to make sure that the project is successful.”

According to him, there are ongoing attacks and conflicts in the country, and there is a delay in responding to and addressing protection issues.

Tony continued, “This crucial capacity-building workshop is aimed at responding to a gap in the protection of internally displaced persons and forcibly displaced persons across seven states: Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Benue, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, and Taraba.”

He explained that the stakeholders would be trained to categorise incidents into actionable alerts across safety and security, child protection, sexual and gender-based violence, health, education, justice, and shelter.

Also speaking, Habiba Yakubu, the Director of Civil Litigation, Borno State Ministry of Justice, assured the state government’s commitment to strengthening collaboration with NHRC to ensure protection issues among displaced persons are enhanced in hard-to-reach locations.