A human rights lawyer, Deji Ajare says any law that favours or targets a selected group of people is discriminatory.
Ajare, who made this known in an interview in Abuja to mark Zero Discrimination Day said the Nigerian constitution contains specific provisions prohibiting discrimination.
He explained that beyond the constitutional provisions there are ”pockets of laws entrenched in our legal system in Nigeria which by their nature are discriminatory.
“It is on days such as this: Zero Discrimination Day, that we recall some of these laws and it is important that citizens and members of civil society step up and challenge the constitutionalism of this laws,” he noted.
The human rights lawyer described discrimination as a “terrible thing that leads to inequalities, and inequalities as the cause of a substantial percentage of all the problems in the world.
In line with this year’s theme which is ‘the fight against discrimination faced by women and girls’, Ajare noted that women are more discriminated against, not just in Nigeria but all over the world.
He said, “women are discriminated in the workplace, access to health care services, there are more women contacting HIV/Aids. With discriminatory access to health care facilities and of course it accounts for high mortality rate and so on and so forth”.
The Human Rights Lawyer added that, “if we have more people coordinating and providing pro-bono services to victims of discrimination, we are going to find that attention would be drawn to it and naturally we are going to eventually be able to achieve the aims of the SDGs which effectively in my opinion is actually to reduce inequalities which is a major cause of discrimination.
The Zero Discrimination Day is marked annually on the 1st of March.
Confidence Okwuchi
