The Governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has called on world leaders to build structures and create enabling environment for people to express their inalienable and God-given rights.
He added that given the intricate role it places in ensuring that people are prioritised in quest for advancement, good governance should be elevated to become a human right for electorates the world over.
Obaseki said this on the occasion of the commemoration of International Human Rights Day, declared by the United Nations Assembly in 1948, which led to the adoption of the International Declaration of Human Rights in Paris, France.
He added that the need for structures and spaces that guarantee the expression of human rights is sacrosanct and a genuine cause, as human rights should never be thought of as a privilege, but as God-given and inalienable.
According to him, โIt is important for world leaders and anyone charged with the responsibility of leading the people to continue to make structures available to guarantee and protect human rights. This is necessary not only because it allows for peace and unity, but because it ensures that people are given the right to be themselves and aspire to whatever heights they deem fit.
โIt is key to point out the fact that much as we are plagued with issues that demand that people are guaranteed their basic rights here, in some climes, there are continuing debates on what should constitute human rights.
โThe right to internet access, for instance, is being debated to be elevated to the status of human right. It is in the same vein that the right to good governance should be considered a human right in this clime. So also should be the right to technical education, given our level of development and role of technical skills in advancing society.โ
Human rights, he said, includes but not limited to the right to be protected against enslavement, noting that the episode with immigrants in Libya, requires a global action to protect the rights of immigrants who are being held captive.
The International Human Rights Day came into force, in 1948. Ever since, there have been raged debates about the rights to be included within the framework of human rights, but many scholars and public policy experts agree that human rights should be a minimum requirement to avoid worst-case abuses, while others see it as a higher standard.
This yearโs celebration is devoted to the launch of a year-long campaign for the 50thanniversary of the two International Covenants on Human Rights, namely: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1966.
