By Ibrahim Abdul’Aziz Yola
Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) is pushing for a bill to establish West African Human Rights Court to checkmate increasing human rights violations in Africa. The Regional Human Rights Officer of the Ugandan Human Rights Commission, Wilfred Asiimwe, revealed this in Yola, the Adamawa state capital, during a training workshop organised by the National Human Rights Commission. The Ugandan human rights officer said more than half of East African human right institutions were very active; hence international synergy is needed to achieve the goal through sharing of similar experience. “In ECOWAS, we are pushing for west African bill on human right, to establish West African court to address human rights violations in the continent.
Through such mechanism, recognition of the dignity of persons and respect of the people of would be restored in Africa. “The human rights commission, especially Uganda and Tanzania are active, if we have court of human rights in place in the continent, it would entrench human rights in Africa. We think that it can be done jointly through regional cooperation between member countries,” he said. Acting Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, Oti Ovrawahn, while declaring open the four-day training, urged participants to be proactive on standard reporting and monitoring temples for human rights violations in the Northeast. She said advanced prosecution skills as well as personal safety and risk management in line with the international best practices perspective were some of the modules to learn during the training to reduce to the barest minimum violation of human rights.
