The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Chief Tony Ojukwu on Monday said the commission is set to establish a National Hate Speech Register ahead of the 2023 general election.
He said the NHRC through the register will monitor and track hate speeches from all platforms across Nigeria and deploy its enforcement mandate on perpetrators.
Ojukwu spoke at a Media Launch of a project “Mobilising Voters For Election” (MOVE) held in Abuja.
Specifically, he revealed that the commission will be working with Facebook, Twitter and other platforms to fully establish a monitoring mechanism to achieve this objective.
He explained that the Commission was moved to initiate the project due to its concern over the rising voter regression and political apathy that has descended into the political landscape since the 2011 general election.
According to him “statistics available to the Commission reveal that only around 10% of the voting eligible public participated in the 2021 election in Anambra State.
Consequently he opined that “the lack of effective voter participation in Elections robs citizens of their fundamental role in a democracy, which is the freedom to choose their representatives.
“We believe that this MOVE project will enable the Commission to integrate human rights into democracy and as well ensure citizens’ participation in the upcoming 2023 general elections” he said.
Continuing, he added that the Commission is currently undertaking a project aimed at mobilising voters to promote electoral rights of citizens and ensuring that all key actors including the security agencies political parties and INEC adhere to international best practices in carrying out their respective duties before, during and after the elections.
He noted that the MOVE project has four main objectives: “Promoting increased participation of citizens in the voting process through access to permanent voters’ card which will be achieved by conducting high-Level advocacy Outreach to INEC and conducting PVC Collection Campaigns amongst other activities, Mobilizing electorates and creating awareness on the right to vote and its associated human rights which the Commission intends to achieve by Monitoring the Voting process and carrying out a Voter Mobilization Campaign.
“Building partnerships for the integration of human rights on the agenda of political parties and candidates as a measure to building voter confidence and participation” he said.
He said the expected outcomes include, increased citizens participation in the voting process, Electorate sensitization on the right to participation, human rights and issued based approaches to campaigns adopted by political parties and candidates, Law enforcement and security agencies adopted human right principles in the protection of voters access and participation.
