What is the agency responsible for the protection of human rights?
Human rights globally refer to privileges that come with every human being when they are born. These rights are about 30 in number and include freedom of thought, freedom of association, right to own things and right to public assembly among others.
Across the world, countries, organisations and various institutions are expected to protect these rights by behaving in certain manners previously agreed upon in various laws and treaties.
To ensure that the agreements are kept, some agencies were created to monitor, report violations and in some extreme cases force countries and organisations to abide by the human rights rules.
Some of the internationally recognised organisations that do these are:
1. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
2. Amnesty International
3. International Labour Organization (ILO)
4. Lawyers Committee for Human Rights
5. Human Rights Watch
6. United Nations Foundation
Some of these agencies have branches in countries across the world including Nigeria.
NHRC
In Nigeria, the body nationally recognized as the protector of human rights in the country is the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) which is located at Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama in the capital city Abuja.
According to the Nigeria Governance Project, the NHRC has a budgetary allocation of about N800m with which it battles violations of the rights of citizens of the world’s largest black population.
Headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
The law establishing the NHRC says the agency’s main duty is to protect rights of Nigerians in line with provisions of the Nigerian constitution as well as the African and United Nations charters on human and peoples' rights.
The work of the NHRC is very crucial because Nigeria is a signatory to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights as well as other international human rights treaties.
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The NHRC has offices in the six geo-political regions of the country as well as another in Abuja that is different from its headquarters.
On its website, the body says it was established to create “an enabling environment for the promotion, protection and enforcement of human rights.”
OPD
Some of the 36 states in Nigeria also have their respective human rights bodies. One of such states is Lagos state which has the Office of the Public Defender. The agency says on its website that its mission is to “safeguard the fundamental human rights and freedom of the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups….”
Among other functions, the OPD provides legal support for those who cannot afford it. It also does the same for anybody who feels that justice has been miscarried in his or her case.
Office of the Public Defender in Lagos
If you are not able to get justice for trampling on your rights at the NHRC or the OPD, there are several other known human rights organisations in the country that can help you out depending on the nature of the violations.
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These agencies include the Human Rights Law Service (HURILAWS), Access to Justice, Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network, Devatop Centre for Africa Development, Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation, Youths For Human Rights Protection and Transparency Initiative and Safe Child Africa.
Meanwhile, watch this NAIJ.com TV interview with Sunny Ofehe, one of the human rights activists in Nigeria's Niger Delta region