Mr. Francis-Xavier Sosu, President, YoHRA
The President of Youth for Human Rights Africa (YoHRA), Mr Francis-Xavier Sosu has indicated that it is important that people know their Fundamental Human Rights so they can demand them.
Although Fundamental Human Rights is crucial for the holistic development of every individual, he said, the rights of many people, predominantly the vulnerable, continued to be violated, leaving them in distress and impoverishment due to their lack of awareness and [ads1]knowledge of their rights.
Mr Sosu was speaking at the launch of the maiden Ghana Youth Human Rights Conference in Accra on Wednesday.
The conference, which is scheduled to take place on December 11, 2017 and on the theme: “Promoting Fundamental Human Rights: A Catalyst for Accelerated Socio-Economic Development in a Free and Just Society,”.
The conference aimed at creating awareness and empowering the citizenry to demand their Fundamental Human Rights.
Mr Sosu said the goal of YoHRA, a non-governmental human rights organisation, was to create awareness and promote observance of Fundamental Human Rights in Ghana and Africa by the use of National, Regional, African and the United Nation’s Human Rights Instruments, and empower the underprivileged in society through civic education, research, publication, as well as follow up on reports on abuses across the continent.
The organisation is also aimed at inspiring the youth to become advocates for tolerance and peace through education on the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The focus of YoHRA, he said, was particularly on advocating against human rights abuses of women, children and People Living with Disabilities (PLWDs) in society through strategic litigation and public interest action, and would work with international organisations and affiliates involved in human rights promotion and advocacy in carrying out trainings for promoters across Africa.
Mr Sosu called for stakeholder collaboration in advocacy and education against the numerous human rights abuses in the society.
The Deputy Executive Secretary of YoHRA, Dr Angela Lamptey, who launched the conference, said it would coincide with the United Nation’s commemoration of the International Human Rights Day, which falls on December 10 each year, and would be celebrated in all African countries they seek to establish chapters of YoHRA in.
She said the conference would assemble Human Rights Ambassadors and activists all over the continent of Africa to discuss issues bordering on human rights on the African Continent in an attempt to find solutions to those issues.
The Director in Charge of Human Rights at the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Dr Isaac Annan, said it was important for the citizenry to be well exposed to the details of the African Charter and other international instruments so that they could hold all state institutions rather than politicians accountable for any violations.
He said Fundamental Human Rights are meant to be automatic for everybody and not a privilege to be owned by governments, religious or any human institution, therefore the provision of quality education and health, among others, are expected to be mandatory provisions for national development.
He said Ghana had ratified all the major Human Rights Treaties without any reservations yet still faced numerous challenges in their implementation at the national level, and it would only take massive public education and sustained advocacy with the youth as leaders to hold the right people accountable and push for the right things to be done.