The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) says it is working with relevant government organs to ensure the inclusion of Human Rights Education in the curriculum of secondary schools in the country.
The Acting Executive-Secretary of the commission, Mrs Oti Ovrawah, made the announcement on Thursday in Abuja at a human rights training for teachers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Ovrawah said the commission was also working to ensure the implementation of the World Programme on Human Rights Education.
She said the goal was being facilitated through an inter-ministerial committee set up to ensure that the programme attained its set objectives.
The acting executive-secretary advised teachers in the FCT to instill the right attitudes and values in their students.
According to her, teachers play pivotal role in society, especially in inculcating right attitudes and values in students.
She noted that the training would equip teachers to play the role with respect to promoting understanding of human rights among students as well as their colleagues.
“The NHRC was established with the broad mandate to promote, protect and enforce human rights in the country.
“This human rights training for teachers falls under the promotional aspect of the commission’s mandate.
“The human rights’ training for teachers seeks to achieve the following– improving the skills of teachers on human rights and mechanisms that protect them, building and maintaining peace.
The First Vice-Chairman of the Abuja Municipal Branch of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mr Geoffrey Attampa, described the training as an eye-opener.
“The training is timely as it has further given us an insight on the rights of children, how to protect these rights and also teach them the basics of human rights.”
He noted that it was teachers’ responsibility to ensure that the rights of pupils were protected since most of the pupils were too young to know that their rights were being violated.
“Some of these children are too young to know that when they sit on the floor to learn under trees, it is a violation of their rights to quality education, so it is our responsibility to speak up for them.”
For Rev. Sr. GraceMaris Chukwuka of Madonna Model Schools, said that the training was an opportunity to learn new ideas about human rights education.
Chukwuka said that the school authority had inculcated human rights education in its civic education as well as moral instructions.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in December, 2011, the UN General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training.
The declaration states that human rights education provides persons with knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and behaviors to build and promote a universal culture of human rights.
Leave a Reply