Avocats Sans Frontieres (ASF) France, on Tuesday, began a two-day training for 30 members of the National Committee Against Torture (NCAT) on the legal framework on torture and effective implementation of the Anti-Torture Act, 2017.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Nigerian Government Inaugurated the NCAT on Sept.11,2022 with the aim to eliminate torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, the Country Director of ASF France, who stated this during the opening ceremony, said participants were drawn from the law enforcement agencies, judiciary, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), among others.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NCAT was set up by the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, as one of his commitment to torture prevention in the country.
Uzoma-Iwuchukwu said the essence of the training was to provide capacity support to NCAT to enable it perform its function efficiently in terms of torture prevention in the country.
The country director said the organisation, also known as Lawyers without Borders France, had been able to support at least 2, 000 victims of torture across various states in the country.
She disclosed that the organisation was able to secure a judgment on Monday at ECOWAS Court, Abuja in favour of Mr Sunday Ayodeji whose leg was amputated due to a gunshot by a police officer in Kaduna State.
According to Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, the torture victim, whose case was handled on pro-bono basis by ASF France under the European Union (EU) and Agence française de Développement (AFD) funded SAFE Project, was awarded N60 million damages with an order for the immediate return of his confiscated possessions.
She called on the government to do more in the implementation of the Anti-Torrure Act in Nigeria.
She said at the end of the two-day training, members of the committee would have been better schooled and supported, having their capacity built by experts to take on from international best practices to be able to do their work better as a committee against torture.
Ms Leann Johnston, the acting High Commissioner, Australian High Commission, said the training by ASF France was part of development programme her country was supporting in Nigeria.
She said the commission was interested in promoting human rights globally and supporting local programmes that help to support victims of toture, among others.
The Executive Secretary of NHRC, Chief Tony Ojukwu, said Nigeria had taken legislative, judicial and other measures to implement the United Nations Convention against Torture, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) as well as the Optional Protocol to the Convention (OPCAT).
Ojukwu, represented by Director, Monitoring Department, Okay Agu, said the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Anti-Torture Act 2017 and Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, 2015, further demonstrated Nigeria’s commitment to protect all persons from torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
He said this was also to ensure that persons, irrespective of their circumstances, were treated with utmost dignity.
(NAN)
