Federal Government has disclosed its readiness to amend the Rights Commission Act establishing the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to integrate national preventive mechanism against torture.
The Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Dr Tony Ojukwu, SAN, gave the hints in Abuja, yesterday, at the formal opening of a two-day strategic workshop on preventions of torture.
Ojukwu recalled that it was in commitment to preventing torture and ill-treatment in places of deprivation of liberty that Nigeria became a party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) on July 27, 2007.
He said: “Specifically, under article 17, each state party is obligated to maintain, designate, or establish independent national preventive mechanisms for the prevention of torture at the domestic level.
“Additionally, under Article 18 (4), state parties, in designating or establishing NPMs, shall give due consideration to the United Nations Principles Relating to the Status of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (the Paris Principles).
“Accordingly, in April 2023, the National Human Rights Commission was designated as Nigeria’s NPM.”
Consequently, he said it necessitated Federal Government’s approval to amend the commission’s act to further strengthen and designate it as the driver of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) against torture.
In their remarks, Head of Africa Regional Team and country Rapporteur for Nigeria, Abdallah Ounnir; and the Executive Director, Sterling Centre, Deji Ajare, advocated for ethical and effective alternative ways to torture that would promote human rights and effective methods of investigation.
Similarly, Manager, Strategy and Development, Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), said torture was not only known in Nigeria but in other African countries.
”We have been engaging the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights and torture was one of the issues of concern.
”We want torture to be eradicated immediately in Nigeria and Africa, we are still engaging with the Commission.”
