A group of Senior Legal Academics, Solicitor Generals, Permanent Secretaries, and Personalities from related fields have converged in Abuja to develop a suitable framework for a successful Transitional Justice Programme in North-East Nigeria.
The Strategic Expert Meeting for the development of Transitional Justice Framework is one of the activities under a project titled “Promoting Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe State.”
The project is being implemented by the National Human Rights Commission NHRC of Nigeria in collaboration with United Nation Development Programme UNDP and supported by the European Union EU.
The Executive Secretary of National Human Rights Commission, Chief Tony Ojukwu said, the Commission is pleased to host the highest level of experts as far as justice machinery in the three project states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe is concerned.
“This is for the purpose of developing a suitable framework for the Transitional Justice, a project that we have introduced to some communities in the three states.”
Represented at by his Senior Special Adviser, Mr. Hilary Ogbonna, the human rights boss stated that “it is highly imperative to design a framework that will best suit the communities ravaged by insurgency.“
He emphasized that, the framework should be in conformity with the values, beliefs, culture and tradition of the people, to make it easy for the community to adapt.
He also stressed that “the framework must be predicated on the principles of natural justice, fair hearing, victim justice, survivor justice, equality etc.
Also, the representative of the UNDP Mr. Elia Von Rota applauded the effort of the Commission in bringing such calibre of intellectuals together to develop the framework, saying he will be pleased to be an observer at the meeting.
