The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has called on government and other stakeholders to address the issue of inequality as this would help faster recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
The commission made the call on Thursday in Lagos while marking the 2020 International Human Rights Day,.
The NHRC urged Nigeria to address the inequality fuelled by the pandemic through promotion and protection of economic, social, and cultural rights.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Dec. 10 of every year was marked as International Human Rights Day during which NHRC, Civil Society organisations carried out solidarity events for victims.
In Lagos State, the staff of NHRC had a road walk-out show with their Orange T-shirt with the inscription: Say no to sexual and gender based violence “
The Coordinator of the commission in Lagos, Mr Lucas Okoyejo, who read the statement by Executive Secretary, Mr Tony Ojukwu, said the 2020 Human Rights Day was in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said that the theme drew attention to the need to recover and build back better by ensuring Human Rights were at the centre of the recovery initiatives.
“We can only achieve our common global goals if we are able to create equal opportunities for all, address the failures exposed and exploited by COVID-19, and apply human rights standards to tackle entrenched systematic and intergenerational inequalities, exclusion and discrimination.
“As we celebrate 2020 international human rights day, the commission enjoins all stakeholders to make concerted efforts to join the rest of the world to do the following.
“End discrimination of any kind: Structural discrimination, ethnicity, nepotism, hatred and intolerance have fuelled the COVID-19 crisis. Equality and non-discrimination are core requirements for a post-COVID recovery,” the commission noted