Introduction:

The National HIV Policy in Nigeria emphasizes an enhanced focus on Key Populations. However, thisis in the face of criminalization, religious dogmas, and socio-cultural bias and prejudice.  Some of the KAP are indigent. It is hence glaring that for appropriate HIV/AID intervention on KAP, the human rights of this group must be protected. Parliamentarians, Policy makers, CSOs, Human Rights groups, legal practitioners, religious and traditional leaders and other stakeholders must play key role in the achievement of an HIV-Free- Nigeria.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Human Rights are natural and inherent in all human beings and the right to health is a fundamental part of human right as it borders on the most important aspect of a human being which is the quality of life and necessary to protect, respect, promote, improve and fulfils.

However, no particular aspect of human rights is more important than the other.HumanRights are thus natural, universal, indivisible Interdependent and interrelated.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

The international recognition of human rights principles emerged after the horrors of the World War 11to avoid a repeat performance of such atrocities. At the end of the war, the world formed the United Nations (UN)which met in san Francisco in 1945. There, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10thDecember 1948.The UDHR consists of a Preamble and 30 Articles. 

The   United Nations created two additional documents, the international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (1966) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (1966).

At the national level human rights provisions are incorporated in numerous laws but most importantly in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 

HUMAN RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS

International human rights   instrument can be classified into two    categories: declarations and conventions

  1. Declarations:
  2. Declaration of the Rights of the Child 1923,
  3. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948,
  4. African Union Solemn Declaration
  • Conventions
  • International Covenant on Civil and political Rights (ICCPR) (1966)
  • International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (1966).
  • Africa Charter on Human and people’s Rights (ACHPR) 1981
  • Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women
  • Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) 1979
  • Optional Protocol to The Convention on The Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women Convention on the Rights of the child (CRC) 1989
  • African Charter on the Rights of the child
  • Convention Against Torture (CAT)
  • Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) 
  • Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)
  • National Human Rights instruments includes:
  • Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) (chapter Iv)
  • ACHPR, Enforcement and Ratification Act, LFN, 2004
  • Child Rights Act (2003)
  • Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, 2014
  • Compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act, 2004

CATEGORIES OF HUMAN RIGHTS

  1. Civil and Political Rights:

These are referred to as the first generation rights. Civil and political rights are a class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted government action and ensure one’s ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression. These rights include:

  1. Rights to life,
  2. Right to dignity of human person,
  3. Right to personal liberty,
  4. right to  fair hearing,
  5. right to private and family life,
  6. right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,
  7. Right to freedom of expression and press,
  8. right to peaceful assembly and association,
  9. right to freedom of movement,
  10. Right to freedom from discrimination and
  11. Right to own property.
  •     Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

These are referred to as second generation rights. They are socio-economic human right. They enable people to have social, economic and cultural security. They ensure different  members of the citizenry have equal conditions and treatments. These rights are:

  1. Right to employment,
  2. Right to housing and shelter,
  3. Right to health,
  4. Right to food , right to education,
  5. Right to safe water,
  6. Right to preservation of one’s mother tongue and other symbols of cultural identity,
  7. Right to safety and security,
  8. Right to an adequate standard of living.

Some societies are unwilling to enshrine purported economic, social and cultural rights as legal rights, seeing them only as needs that society or government might provide if resources are available, but which are not justiciable unless they are established by some contract. Nigeria is one of such countries.

  • Environment and Development Rights

These are called third generation rights. The term “third-generation human rights” remains largely unofficial, and thus houses an extremely broad spectrum of rightsincluding:

  1. Right to a healthy environment,
  2. right to natural resources,
  3. right to communicate and communication rights,
  4. right to participation in cultural heritage,
  5. Rights to intergenerational equity and sustainability etc.
  • Special Group Rights

Some groups of people are vulnerable to discrimination and abuse. Group rights are the rights held by a group rather than by its members severally, or rights held only by individuals within the specified group.

 More recently though, demanding group rights are seen as a way of actively addressing issues of marginalization and realizing equality. This is where the group is regarded as being in a situation that requires special protective rights if its members are to enjoy human rights on terms equal with the majority of the population. Examples of such groups may include indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, women, children and people with disability.

  • Constitutional Rights

The constitutional rights are those aspects of human right that are guaranteed by the constitution of a country. In Nigeria for instance, the civil and political rights are guaranteed under chapter four of the 1999constitution and are therefore, justiciable or enforceable in a law court.

 On the other hand many of the socio-economic and cultural rights are recognized in chapter two of the constitution but are not justiciable. Thus constitutional rights can be classified into fundamental, guaranteed and justiciable rights and recognized; and non-justiciable rights respectively.

Conclusion

It is the place of all human, activists as well as paralegals to foster the human rights conditions of members of KAP through the following:

Strategic Litigation,
Fundamental Rights Enforcement Actions
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Traditional Mediation and Conciliation
Advocacy for Decriminalization
Human Right Education
Security and Paralegal Services