
Earlier in the week, David Whettstone of Pacifica Radio WPFW's Community Watch & Comment spoke with Human Rights Advocates Chioma Dike and Nana B.f. A. Ofori-Atta about the #BringBackOurGirls campaigns, organized by civil society, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Palermo Protocol).
You may listen to the interview courtesy of Pacifica Radio (WPFW), the Africa's Daughters Foundation and Real Time Africa here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ER6RN8SQmY&app=desktop
Women and girls are the backbone of any society or nation. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms and protects the human rights of women and girls.
1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood
2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status...
3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all of their forms.
5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
6. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law...
9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile...
16. (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouse.
The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime,
adopted by General Assembly resolution 55/25 of 15 November 2000, is the main
international instrument in the fight against transnational organized crime. It
opened for signature by Member States at a High-level Political Conference
convened for that purpose in Palermo, Italy, on 12-15 December 2000 and entered
into force on 29 September 2003. The Convention is further supplemented by
three Protocols, which target specific areas and manifestations of organized
crime. In 2002, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Statute) entered into force, with specific reference to "trafficking in persons" as a crime against humanity under the Statute's enslavement provision. In 2003, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Palermo Protocol), entered into force as part of the United Nations Convention against Organized Crime. In 2004, the Commission on Human Rights (now known as the Human Rights Council) appointed a Special Rapporteur on the thematic issue of trafficking in persons, especially in women and children.
Next Steps
- Keep up the momentum by raising your voice;
- Create events to keep the safe & immediate return of all of the girls front and center;
- Follow #BringBackOurGirls on social media to keep up to date on actions;
- Follow the efforts of the Nigerian Government & Civil Society, the African Union, the United Nations and the U.S.
- Support efforts to protect the human rights of women and children in your community by learning more about the Convention on the Rights of the Child (#CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (#CEDAW);and
- Learn more about anti-trafficking mechanisms, like the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Palermo Protocol)