“Human Rights is at the heart of migration and must be respected in compliance with international best practices"

“Human Rights is at the heart of migration and must be respected in compliance with international best practices”, said the Executive-Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Chief Tony Ojukwu, during his opening remarks at the two-day training on the protection of the rights of migrants. The training, organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) within the framework of the PROMIS project, aimed to enhance the capacity of the NHRC in addressing human rights issues related to international borders and its role in the protection of the rights of migrants at border areas during reception and interviewing of migrants. The participants included 28 NHRC staff (09 males and 19 females) from NHRC field offices in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Sokoto, Edo, Ogun, Oyo, Cross River, Katsina, Borno and Taraba States in Nigeria.

The Executive Secretary of NHRC stated that, as human rights advocates and frontline defenders, staff of the National Human Rights stand on a strong legal and institutional footing to tackle this present and emerging styles of human rights violations. He pledged that the training received under the auspices of OHCHR PROMIS project will be extended to all NHRC’s state offices in due course as migration is all encompassing.