Rights Commission Holds Training for Journalists

Rights Commission Holds Training for Journalists
 Uche Iheanacho, Abuja

The National Human Rights Commission in Nigeria has commenced a two-day training workshop for Nigerian journalists and other stakeholders.

The training workshop is designed to, among other objectives, sensitize media practitioners to the importance of human rights reporting and to strengthen their capacity to disseminate appropriate human rights messages.

The workshop is addressing issues of selection and coverage of human rights or rights-related stories, reportage of electoral process and avoidance of bias or distortion of human rights information.

Speaking at the opening event, the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission in Nigeria, Mr. Roland Ewubare said:

“Nigerian journalists just like journalists in other African countries have continued to face formidable difficulties of an intolerant society, brutal government agents, and thuggish security forces, absence of constitutional and legal protection, among others”.

Mr. Ewubare told the gathering that human rights had become an intrinsic global trend every nation must reckon with, noting that human rights issue has become part and parcel of development plans of every nation and an index of human development.

He said the commission had received over thirty-thousand complaints since its establishment in 1995 but irregular and rigorous judicial proceedings had made it very difficult to pursue them to logical conclusions.

Violation

Dr. Jubril Ibrahim from the Centre for Democracy and Development in Nigeria in a lecture entitled: ‘Fundamental Human Rights Concept, Education and Development’ highlighted the need for governments at all levels to revisit issues of human rights articles enshrined in their various constitutions and ensure that they are kept.

Dr. Ibrahim says “rights of citizens have been systematically and grossly violated in the developing world and its governments” noting that law enforcement agents have turned out to be the most violators of human rights in the world, especially in Africa.

Among the speakers at the occasion was Mallam Garba Shehu, Media Advisor to Former Nigerian Vice-President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. He spoke on the imperatives of the Freedom of Information Bill currently awaiting the assent of the Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.

Mr. Mac Imoni Amarere of African Independent Television, AIT, spoke on the Media as a tool for Human Rights Education and a Catalyst for Change while a general overview of the National Human Rights Commission in Nigeria was given by Mr. Nasir Ladan, Director of Public Affairs and Communications of the National Human Rights Commission.

The workshop will strengthen the capacity of the local media to effectively use communications as a catalyst for change, to create a human rights culture in the population, thereby reducing human rights violations in Nigeria.

It will also create a community of human rights editors and correspondents who will support the work of the commission through effective broadcasting.

Today in Nigeria, a whole range of right-based issues are demanding urgent attention such as: The Child Rights Act, the Right of People with Disability, the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Extra-judicial killings, Detention without Trial, among others.

Qasim/Ekata