Human rights and hope for the future

THE initially conceived ‘International Bill of Rights’ which was later transmogrified into Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at its third session on December 10, 1948 as Resolutions 217, in Paris, France, witnessed overwhelming support of  member states. It came into existence as a result of the trauma of World War, whereby many people lost their lives and gross abuse of human rights.

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Explicitly, the Human Rights Declaration of 1948 include among other, the right to life, liberty and security of person, Abolition of slavery, torture and inhuman treatment or punishment, equality of everyone before the law, negation to arbitrary arrest and detention, right to fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal amongst other.

Just as beautiful these rights tend to be, many democrats would have thought that its application in the constitution of members’ states, would witness peace, tranquility, justice and equality of human race but rather it has not due to what many international observers termed selfish interest on the part of the leaders. Unarguably, the world is marred with series of atrocities and human rights violations ranging from developed and developing countries.

No doubt, abuses of human rights often lead to conflict, and conflict typically results in human rights violations. Furthermore, this often leads to the breakdown of infrastructure and civic institutions which in turn undermines a broad range of rights. These various forms of economic breakdown and oppression violate rights to self-determination and often contribute to further human tragedy in the form of sickness, starvation, and lack of basic shelter.

The breakdown of government institution results in denials of civil rights, including rights to privacy, fair trial, and freedom of movement. In many cases, the government is increasingly militarised, and police and judicial systems are corrupted. Abductions, arbitrary arrests, detentions without trials, political executions, assassinations and torture often follow.

Nigeria, a member of the United Nations (UN) guarantees fundamental human rights in its constitution, though the high level of corruption especially in the government circle makes it impossible to respect and protect human rights. We have overtime witnessed constant violation of human rights by those who ought to be responsible in ensuring law and order. Especially when it comes to human right abuses as shown in the constitutional sections above.

In order to take a drastic step at ensuring a nation free of human rights abuses, government should follow the rule of law. It has to ensure, for instance, that corruption in the judiciary is stopped and checked by another agency and not to rather use it as a tool to weaken the efforts of those who seek justice or as a political weapon against opposition.

It is a demand that government should provide human rights education to the citizens through the media, workshop, and as part of academic curriculum, in the absence of none. This will help to educate the citizens on their rights and how to seek redress when their rights are abused.

Craig Oluwasegun

Abeokuta.