[hr-education] Re: Monitoring the application of the UNDHRET and HRE

2012-07-17 09:43:41

Dear friends,

Before we set monitoring bench marks, We must define the objectives, strategies and action plan. If we say that one of our objectives is to ensure that UNDHRET is included in the school curriculum, and by the age of 16 every young person should be able to understand the UNDHRET and how it affects his life, and should be able to meet his needs and rights within his own environment within the framework that has been established by the government. If we say that another objective is to ensure that governments should include UNDHRET as a compulsory part of the school curriculum or co curricular activity, and should be a part of the PTA Education scheme, and that every school family should have an (SHDR/TJA) Sustainable Human Development Rights/Total Justice Assessment. Another objective may be that the national government must set up a framework for ensuring that every policy maker is trained in the UNDHRET and that the framework should include centers for reporting rights abuses even by public spirited third parties, and a facility for the reports to be investigated and and even a court order issued to compel defaulters to retrace their footsteps.
Yet another objective may be the compulsory training of potential elected and appointed public officers in UNDHRET and a mandatory assessment of the mandate area the public officer is seeking, using the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, identification of gaps and proffering of possible action which the potential or existing public officer hopes to put in place.

Another objective could be the application of the UNDHRET in assessing the activities of the private sector and its operations and maybe giving every private organization a mandate to train its staff and comply to an UNDHRET assessment and recommended ameliorative actions.

When the above framework exists, it will be easy for the Human Rights Council (HRC) to monitor the implementation strategies vis-a-vis the anticipated outputs of member countries which will be in line with the desired objectives of the scheme. The HRC should provide a monitoring assessment report for each member state based on both the country implementation reports and the HRC verification reports.

Nigeria has virtually no organized human rights education plan. There may be however selected pilot human rights education schemes such as the one we run for young people, civil defense organizations, teachers and National Orientation officers. It has not become a national policy yet even though we had the permission of the Chief Justice of Nigeria to do the training. There are also other NGOs who carry out human rights education in various sectors e.g. the police. There is a tentative framework we are working on but it is not a national policy yet.

Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this Forum.

Nnenna Eluwa
Executive Director
First Lady's Save OurYouths Campaign,
No. 15 Ezioha Street,Aladinma,
P.O. box 2811,Owerri,
Imo State, Nigeria.
Tel. 234-8050810116; 234- 8157719879