Dignity

It’s wonderful to have you here again, I hope you have been walking the consciousness of your right to life!

This is another day for us to know more about our rights. Put your seatbelt on, this is another interesting one!

Initially, this section did give me a hard time, trying to understand what ‘dignity of human person’ meant. But thank God for good lecturers and the ability to read and understand.

The right to dignity of human person.

To really understand this right, we would have to look at what the constitution says about it in section 34 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

This section explains that every citizen, every living human being, is entitled to be respected and treated as a human being.

To be treated and respected as a human means to be free from torture, slavery and inhuman treatment.

You should be respected as a human being {except you’re like my dear friend who’s a robot(sorry)}and in respecting your status as a human there are several degrading punishments that you should not be subjected to.

You should not be subjected to:

• Torture
• Inhuman treatment
• Degrading treatment
• You should not be held in slavery or servitude (subjection to someone more powerful)
• Also, you should not be subjected to forced or compulsory labour.

FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR?

The term ‘forced or compulsory labour’ does not include a court sentence, so where an individual commits a civil or criminal offense, such person cannot claim such a right

For instance, where an individual defames you (civil offense) or steals your bicycle (criminal offense) and the court finds him guilty and then pronounces judgment, in addition to this judgment, the court also sentences the individual to, let’s say three years of hard labour(this could either be cutting the grass every morning, washing the toilets e.t.c, as the case may be)

The individual who has been sentenced by the court cannot enforce this right beacuse he has committed an offense that legally took this right from him.

Remember we said in “The Basics ", that our human rights cannot be taken except where it is stated in the constitution, well in this case, the exception is clearly stated in the constitution

Still on forced or compulsory labour

Forced or compulsory labour does not include labour required of members of the Nigeria Police Force.

Where a community is under threat, where there is an event in a society that would bring about calamity and an individual is forced to carry out specific important duties, that individual cannot possibly enforce this right to dignity as a human being, because the forced labour was required to prevent calamity in the society.

For instance, if it rained heavily at Ajah in Lagos State and due to this heavy rainfall, there was a flood, and so the youths of Ajah were forced to create a pathway for the water to flow out rather than destroying lives and properties.

The youths cannot come together enforce this right to dignity as a human person because that labour was important, it was necessary to prevent calamity in that community.

Also, a labour you are subjected to, which forms part of your education and training as citizens of Nigeria as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly cannot be termed a ‘forced and compulsory labour’.

I know and believe that at this juncture, you have been educated on your right to dignity as a human, henceforth, do well to walk in the consciousness of your right.

See you next time!

Thank you for reading this article, I know you found this really helpful so do well to share to lots, lots of people.

The goal is to ensure that majority of the Nigerian citizens are aware of these rights.

Let’s make that happen together!

Original image credit:https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/dignity-word.html

Author: Esther Ude.