<<Print>>

The Prime Minister of Guinea Bissau, Domingos Simoes Pereira has challenged human rights advocates in West Africa to integrate other dimensions of human rights into the effort for a more holistic campaign.

While acknowledging the validity of the campaign and the need to promote justice and deepen democracy, Mr Pereira urged campaigners to recognize its other elements including the need to improve the living conditions of the citizens through the provision of infrastructure and addressing unemployment, particularly among the youths

According to a Statement issued by the ECOWAS Secretariat on Friday and made available to the Ghana News Agency, the Prime Minister made the call at the opening of the international conference on human rights last Wednesday, March 18, 2015 in Bissau.

Mr Pereira blamed the development challenges facing Guinea Bissau partly on the fact that none of the previous democratic governments has completed its tenure thereby denying the country of a sustained intervention in addressing its development challenges, particularly in the development of infrastructure.

He applauded the various international support for the country, whose development needs are the subject of an international donors conference in Brussels later this month, and assured that the government was determined to work with its international partners, including ECOWAS, in furthering its development to match those of its neighbours.

The Prime Minister hailed ECOWAS, which has a peacekeeping force in the country and has made financial contributions to assist the country overcome some of its development challenges, as evidence of African “solidarity and friendship”

Earlier, the President of the Court, Justice Maria de Céu Silva Monteiro said that the conference will not only contribute to sensitizing the citizens on the role of the court, but specifically, provide a platform to dialogue on the region´s commitment to the promotion of the human rights of the citizens and the role of the court in its protection.

In this regard, she said that the three day conference, the fourth to be organised by the Court, will contribute towards building the capacity of its staff for effectiveness in discharging its mandate, one of which is the protection of the human rights of the 300 million citizens of the region.

The Vice President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Toga McIntosh delivered the goodwill message of the Commission in which he characterized “human rights protection in West Africa as a non-negotiable part of the “region´s development agenda.

“The issue of human rights protection is so fundamental now in this century that it has become the dominant subject of many discussions relating to vital issues of common interest to human development,” the Vice President told the 70 participants attending the conference and dignitaries at the opening ceremony.

He urged the Court to rely on the Community´s values as “excellent foundation” to discharge its pivotal role in the “search for and dispensation of social justice” that will adequately protect the rights of community citizens and provide an assurance “as they go about their daily business for a better life.”

“Our conviction is that the judicial system in our Member States should work together towards the rule of law in West Africa,” the Vice President said, acknowledging that human rights are fundamental to the realization of the borderless region being pursued by the 15-Member Community.

The Chairman of the Governing Council of Nigeria’s Human Rights Commission, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, delivered the keynote address in which he traced the progressive recognition and role of human rights in regional integration, exemplified by its integration into the 1993 revised ECOWAS Treaty as one of the pillars of the region´s integration project.

The biennial conference is being held under the theme: “Human rights as a fundamental value of ECOWAS: an analysis of the jurisprudence of the ECOWAS Court of Justice”, with participants drawn from within and outside the region.