International Human Rights Day was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly to be held on the tenth of December every year. Human Rights Day inspires everyone to speak up and take action to end discrimination in all forms whenever and wherever it happens.
The theme of the UN Human Rights Day 2025 is, “Human Rights: our Everyday Essentials” which emphasizes the enduring relevance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its core values of equality, justice, freedom, and dignity
This means that everyone should be treated equally and with respect. People should not be discriminated against because of: Gender, Race, Colour of their skin, Sexual Orientation, Religion or the country in which they were born.
The principle of humane treatment requires that civilians be treated humanely at all times. Common Articles of the Geneva Conventions prohibit violence to life and person, including cruel treatment and torture, taking of hostages, humiliating and degrading treatment, and execution without regular trial against non-combatants, including the wounded, sick and shipwrecked.
Civilians are entitled to respect for their physical and mental integrity, their honour, family right, religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. Adverse distinction based on race, sex, nationality, religious belief or political opinion is prohibited in the treatment of prisoners of war and civilians. All protected persons shall be treated with the same consideration by parties to the conflict, without distinction based on race, religious, sex or political opinion.
Every person affected by armed conflict is entitled to his fundamental human rights and guarantees, without discrimination. Women and children are granted preferential treatment, respect and protection. Women must be protected from rape and from any form of indecent assault. Children under the age of eighteen must not be permitted to take part in hostilities.
International humanitarian law provides specific protection for pregnant women. It is the responsibility of the detaining authorities to provide for appropriate care, including medical care and supplementary food rations, for a pregnant detainee. The necessary medical arrangements must be made to ensure that childbirth takes place in an appropriate medical establishment, preferably a hospital outside the prison and that medical care is given to mother and child.
Women and men equally so, should enjoy all judicial guarantees and be informed of their rights.
It is an irony of faith and terrible cause for concern that, after the Colonial Emancipation in Africa and Abolition of Slave Trades, nefarious citizens of Nigeria buy and sell Nigerians to people in other countries.
Modern Slavery and Sale of human beings have become the obnoxious business of unscrupulous Nigerians. Thus, it is pertinent that the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) should be well funded to stem the tide of this monumental national disgrace and humiliation, which has eroded the human dignity in Nigeria. Equality is our rights, our freedoms!
