Nigeria has been nominated by African member-states to lead the continent on the Bureau of the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWG).
Omini Oden, Head of Corporate Affairs, Media and Communications, the National Senior Citizen Centre (NSCC), disclosed this in a statement yesterday.
He said Nigeria’s nomination was effected at the ongoing 13th session of the UN OEWG in New York.
He said Nigeria took the front seat following its “authenticity and consistency in leading the charge at the United Nations on concrete ways to realize the global mechanism for strengthening the protection of human rights of older persons and also by Nigeria’s current local records of concrete policy actions and legislative efforts to accelerate the inclusion of older persons.
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“Nigeria, in taking a seat on the UN-OEWGA Bureau, has kindled hope of many member-states, National Human Rights Institutions and Non-Governmental Organisations, that the UN-OEWGA process would now, gather momentum after a slow 12 years, as Nigeria reiterates and stands by its UN statements stressing the importance of delivering the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 67/139 of 20th December 2012.”
The resolution requests the OEWG to present to the General Assembly, at the earliest possible date, a proposal containing the main elements that should be included in an international instrument to promote and protect the rights and dignity of older persons, which are not currently addressed sufficiently by existing international human rights instruments.
Nigeria’s membership and partnership with like-minded member-states calling for drafting normative texts towards negotiations by member-states have facilitated the needed breakthrough during the 13th session, according to Oden.
Daily Trust, in its editorial of 31 March, had called for action towards upholding the rights and dignity of senior citizens in Nigeria, a year after President Muhammadu Buhari ratified the National Policy on Ageing for Older Persons in Nigeria.
Their security, care, self-fulfillment and the provision of an age-friendly environment had all not gone beyond dreams, Daily Trust had added in the editorial.
