The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has set up a law pavilion (law Library) with the state of the art facilities to ease reports and researches for its staff and external users within the human rights community.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Chief Tony Ojukwu (SAN) who stated this at the official presentation of the pavilion to the staff of the NHRC noted that the idea is to keep abreast with global trend as well as improve the services of legal officers.
According to the Chief Custodian of Human Rights in Nigeria, the legal officers of the Commission will find the pavilion very useful since they are charged with: litigation of civil cases on human rights, defending the Commission against legal action, providing other legal services to the Commission including drafting agreements, MOUs and other legal documents, observing proceedings as Amicus Curiae on human rights matters, coordinating the Commission's programme on Pro Bono services and reviewing legislations, bye laws, and other administrative provisions by Federal, States and Local Governments Areas in the country, among others.
The NHRC Boss said that the law pavilion is a result-driven and revolutionary software designed to provide legal practitioners with the advantages of convenient, research-advanced, efficient and cost-effective legal practice.
The pavilion has the capacity to showcase federal laws together with relevant case laws interpreting such laws, thereby equipping the Commission's staff not only with the letters of the law, but also with the spirit behind the law interpreted by jurists, Ojukwu said.
He therefore charged the legal and investigation officers to make maximum use of the pavilion, saying that "there will be no more excuse for both lawyers and investigation officers for not citing appropriate legislations or authorities to back up their reports and recommendations.
In conclusion, he reminded the legal and investigation officers of the NHRC that there reports should be of the jurisprudential quality of the judgement of the High Court, pointing out that with the amendment of the NHRC Act in 2010, the decisions and recommendations of the Commission can be registered as decisions of High Court and made enforceable as such.
