The President of the National Commission of Human Rights and Freedoms, NCHRF, has expressed he wish for the commission to begin presenting rights reports during plenary sittings and not special meetings with committees of the national assembly.
Prof. James Mouangue Kobila was speaking Tuesday 22 June 2021 after leading members of the rights commission to meet with the members of the Constitutional Laws Committee at the National Assembly. Mouangue urged parliamentarians to implement article 21 of the Belgrade principle which calls for more relation between parliament and national rights commission.
“Those principles provides namely that parliament and the national human rights institution should build up a permanent relations and the national reports and statements of human rights in the country should be presented before MPs in plenary and not just during a special meeting of a committee,” he said.
He said the commission’s broad mandate to promote and protect human rights and to prevent any situation warrants it to visit detention facilities nationwide but faces a problem of access to places where allegations of human rights violations are raised especially in crisis-hit regions to conduct feel work and enquiries.
This, he said has not relented them in their efforts as the commission has handled 566 of the 927 complaints it received in 2020 as well as sent out 1 010 letters including 363 to administrative authorities, 344 individuals, 263 civil society organisations and 40 companies. He said 547 CSOs got affiliated to the NCHRF with 62 of them being new and 485 being already existing CSOs.
The commission, he said organized 57 events, carried out six investigative visits to prisons, carried out five human rights awareness-raising with different structures including MINPROFF, MINTSS, MINJEUN, MINCOM, MINPOSTEL, SED, CONSUPE, MINTP and the Office of the Governor of the Centre Region while a freedoms observatory was created bringing together 241 CSOs.
Mouangue pleaded with MPs and the Assembly as a whole to work towards encouraging the development of a culture of respect for human rights. He said thought the NCHRF operates independently, it can be better if the National Assembly assists in the promotion of human rights cross country.
Reacting to the speech of the NCHRF boss, Hn. Zondol Hersesse, President of the Constitutional Laws Committee at the National Assembly, agreed it was very important for them to know how the human rights commission functions in order to fully participate in the promotion of its values.
By Doh Bertrand Nua
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