Human Rights Commission proposes law for elderly – TheNigerialawyer

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has proposed a legal
framework to ensure welfare and protection of the rights and
wellbeing of the elderly in the society.

Executive Secretary of the Commission, Tony Ojukwu, said this in
the Adamawa State capital, Yola, at the review meeting of a project
monitoring the rights of internally displaced people (IDPs) as
being co-implemented by the NHRC and United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno
states

Addressing newsmen in Yola in the course of the four-day End of
Year Review/Training Meeting of the Project, the NHRC Executive
Secretary said the society owes it as a duty to protect the
elderly, whether they are IDPs or people living regular lives.

“We propose that there should be adequate legal framework for
the elderly,” he said, explaining that although in Africa, old
people are usually taken care of by family members, “we feel that
time has come to give them special place in our statutes.”

He said this has become imperative “owing to impoverishment of
families, effects of urbanisation, as well as reduction in the role
and relevance of elders in communities where they used to function
like consultants and were appreciated as such.”

According to him, such factors are affecting the care that the
elderly receive from their relations and the communities, hence the
need to make special provision for them.

“Having served their youthful years for the good of society,
society owes them intervention,” he said, adding, “We feel they
could be helped with what we call Lifelong learning and lifelong
care.”

Officials of the NHRC and those of the UNHCR as well as project
monitors were in Yola for the End of Year Review/Training Meeting
of the NHRC/UNHRC IDP/Protection Monitoring Project to review the
execution of the project in 2019 and to make recommendations to
improve the project in the coming year.

The NHRC Executive Secretary Tony Ojukwu, explained that the
project entailed ensuring that people displaced from their homes by
Boko Haram insurgents in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa live in reasonable
comfort either in IDPs camps or with relatives, adding that the
project succeeded in the outgoing year at reducing incidence of
human rights abuses of IDPs.