The Amnesty International (AI) has launched an eight point human rights agenda, asking the Federal and State Governments to urgently implement recommendations from previous reports about human rights violations in Nigeria.
Amnesty International, a global rights group, also asked for an abolition of death sentence and as well as end to torture as a means of extracting information from suspects during interrogations.
The country director of the human rights organization, Osai Ojigho, told a news conference in Abuja that both the Federal and State Governments need to do more to address cases of human rights abuses and that the new political dispensation provides politicians another opportunity.
The Amnesty International had over the years documented reports about human rights abuses across Nigeria. Some of those reports are often very critical about the operations of government agencies, especially the police and the Nigerian military.
Although the AI did not release a new report, but it proposed eight point human rights agenda for the new political dispensation in Nigeria.
The organization said it wanted the government to end violence against women and girls, stop torture and abolish death penalty.
The report by Channels Television on Friday noted that in line with the rights group’s request, many Nigerians agree that the issue of torture as a means of extracting information from suspects should be abolished, however, many others disagree with the human rights organization on their quest to abolish the death penalty.
The report added that although many countries around the world have abolished capital punishment, death penalty is still practiced in some countries, including China, the United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
GIK/APA