The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Nigeria has advocated for the strengthening of Human Rights Institutions to enable them oversight effectively and address issues including drug-related offenses.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mr. Tony Ojukwu (SAN) gave the advice at a virtual participation of the 65th Session of the United Nations Commission.
He stressed the need to comply with the relevant principles and guidelines for addressing issues of drug use in Nigeria.
Mr. Ojukwu informed the session that the Commission had recently embarked on the 2022 audit of detention facilities in Nigeria to ensure adherence to international best practices in handling all categories of detainees, including alleged drug offenders.
The Nigeria’s Chief Human Rights Officer noted that proffering useful advice in respect of drug-related offenses to relevant stakeholders like the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary, as well as synergizing with the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), will help to reduce human rights violations while addressing issues of drug offenses.
Mr. Ojukwu restated the need for relevant authorities to ensure the provision of free legal services to vulnerable persons and drug-related suspects, and to decriminalize possession of drugs for personal use, saying that such a measure will reduce health challenges that might have been exacerbated with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also speaking at the webinar conference, the representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UNODC Mr. Philip Meissner stated that it is important to consider nature and magnitude of any drug-related offenses as well as the background of the alleged offenders, so as to understand them better and ensure justice for all parties at the end of the day.
He recalled that all Member states of the UN made commitments to prevent arbitrary arrest and detention and to observe best practices especially as it relates to drug offenses.
Meanwhile, the EU Permanent Representative in Vienna, Ambassador Stephane Klement tasked the Civil Society Organizations CSOs to design a standardized template for monitoring the trend of drug offenses and actions being taken by the national authorities, so as to point out any form of inhuman treatment against alleged drug offenders.
He stated that there has to be strong advocacy to ensure an immediate release of persons illegally detained in relation to drugs to avoid further violation of the rights of such individuals.
In the same vein, an advocate for fair treatment of drug users, Kenya Cuevas Mexico told the Conference how he suffered different forms of human rights violations from the age of nine years when he had to leave his home to the wide world in search of survival.
