There is a conscious effort to strengthen National Human Rights Commission through its decisions that are now enforceable.

Its Director, Monitoring Department/Project Coordinator, Tony Ojukwu said this while speaking on “The Role of the National Human Rights Commission in creating national awareness on human rights promotion and protection.

Ojukwu, a lead speaker at the fourth edition of policy monitoring dialogues series, organised by Savanah Centre for Diplomacy Democracy and Development with support from Ford Foundation held today at Ikeja, GRA, Lagos.

He alluded to the fact that last year alone the commission received one million complaints with an annual budget of one point two billion naira which included personnel also indicating that all services by the commission remained free.

According to him, the commission was setup to deal with specific issues such as discrimination, protection of rights of vulnerable groups refugees, persons living with disabilities among other roles, saying it has specific human rights mandate which includes research, documentation, training and education on human rights issues.

The discussant and President of Women Arise, Doctor Joe Okei-Odumakin advised the commission to make use of its human rights fund, also pressed for the need to amend the prison act to enable anyone including the human rights commission visit the prison without any prior notice.

Okei-Odumakin said the Commission should also monitor the State’s compliance with its own and with International Human Rights Law and if necessary recommend changes.

The Foremost Human Rights Activist said the Commussion must always ensure citizens’ rights were protected through constant awareness campaigns and review of policies.

Another discussant, Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court of Appeal, Ado Ekiti said prison decongestion was a necessity and those unjustly detained without trial when eventually set free needed to be compensated so compensation must be included in the laws.

He called for awareness by the commisssion, saying it remained an ingredient that would help citizens know and defend their rights.

Other discussant include; Program Manager, CLEEN Foundation, Blessing Abiri, the moderator was Broadcaster and Content producer, Kadiria Ahmed.

Others at the dialogue: West African Director, Ford Foundation; Innocent Chukwuma, former President Civil Liberties Organisation; Ayo Obe, Chair, Transition Monitoring Group; Abiola Akiode-Afolabi, Executive Director, Project Alert; Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, Ambassador Abdullahi Omaki, Executive Director, SCDDD; and others.