National Human Rights Commission of India is a statutory body constituted on 12 October 1993 under the Protection of Human Rights Ordinance of 28 September 1993. It was given a statutory basis by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (PHRA). The NHRC is responsible for the protection and promotion of human rights, which is defined by the act as "rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by courts in India".
Konakuppakatil Gopinathan Balakrishnan is an Indian judge who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India and later the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of India. He was the first judge from Kerala to become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. His tenure lasting more than three years has been one of the longest in the Supreme Court of India. While being Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court, he was appointed the acting governor of Gujarat from 16 January 1999 to 18 March 1999. In 2010, he was conferred with an honorary doctorate by Cochin University of Science and Technology.
The University of Abuja or Yakubu Gowon University is a federal university located in Abuja, Nigeria. It was established in January 1988 as a dual-mode university with the mandate to run conventional and distance learning programmes. Academic work began at the university in 1990 with the matriculation of its pioneer students.
Bianca Odinakachukwu Olivia Odumegwu-Ojukwu is a Nigerian politician, diplomat, lawyer, businesswoman and beauty pageant titleholder. She currently serves as the Federal Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. The widow of Biafra President Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, she is a multiple international pageant titleholder, having won Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, Miss Africa, and Miss Intercontinental. Formerly a presidential advisor, she was the country's ambassador to Ghana and became Nigeria's Ambassador to Spain in 2012. She is also Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations World Tourism Organization ( UNWTO) and the incumbent Minister of State Foreign Affairs, after being sworn-in on 4 November 2024.
Jake Okechukwu Effoduh is a Nigerian lawyer, human rights activist, and academic currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada. He is known for hosting Flava, a popular community radio show produced by BBC Media Action. He later hosted Talk Your Own: Make Naija Better, a radio programme that aired on over 100 stations across Nigeria, reaching millions of listeners. The programme tackled critical societal issues, ranging from health and education to civic rights and governance, aiming to empower Nigerians with knowledge and tools for advocacy.
Mike Agbedor Abu Ozekhome is a lawyer and human rights activist, holding the rank of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. He is known for his work as a constitutional lawyer and also an orator.
The National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria, affiliated with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, was established by the National Human Rights Commission (Amendment) Act of 1995 to promote and protect all human rights in Nigeria. The Commission serves as an extra-judicial mechanism which safeguards the human rights of the Nigerian population. It monitors human rights in Nigeria, assists victims of human rights violations, and helps in the formulation of the Nigerian Government's policies on human rights. This institution was initiated to comply with the demands of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, United Nations Charter, Universal Declaration on Human Rights and other international treaties as a signatory to these frameworks. In 2010, it was amended to accommodate quasi - judicial powers to summon persons, acquire evidence, award compensation and enforce decisions. The power to visit any place of detention without violating detainees’ rights is also recognized in the act.
Solomon Adun Asemota, is a Nigerian lawyer and a human rights activist. He is the founder and principal partner of the law firm, Solomon Asemota & Co. He became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 1986.
Damilola Sunday Olawuyi is an international jurist, professor of law, arbitrator, author and policy consultant, with expertise in petroleum, mining, energy and environmental law. He is the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. Professor Olawuyi was promoted to the rank of full professor of law at the age of 32 years, becoming one of the youngest full professors of law in Nigerian history. He became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2020, aged thirty-seven, becoming the youngest academic ever elevated to the rank of a senior advocate of Nigeria.
Bolaji Olufunmileyi Owasanoye is a Nigerian lawyer and human rights activist. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, an anticorruption agency in Nigeria.
Olukayode "Kayode" Abraham Ajulo, OON, is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, an arbitrator, tutor, orator and civil rights activist. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. and the Diocesan Registrar of the Anglican Communion, Church of Nigeria. He is the Honorable Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice of Ondo State.
Nneka the Pretty Serpent is a 2020 remake of the 1994 horror mystery film of the same name. It was directed by Tosin Igho with Idia Aisien playing the lead role alongside Bovi Ugboma, Bimbo Ademoye, Zack Orji, Shaffy Bello, Beverly Osu and Ndidi Obi. It was written by Adia Uyoyou.
Ali bin Saeed bin Samikh Al-Marri is a Qatari human rights figure and politician born on November 30, 1972. He was appointed Minister of Labour of the State of Qatar on October 19, 2021, and was re-appointed Minister of Labor by an Amiri order in March 2023. Before taking up the ministerial portfolio, he had chaired the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) for State of Qatar since 2009. He also served as acting president and secretary-general of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions and as president of the Arab Network of National Human Rights Institutions. In 2012 he was elected chairman of the Permanent Arab Committee on Human Rights of the Arab League and chairman of the Asia Pacific Forum for the session 2013 to 2015. He was re-elected as chairman of the NHRC of the State of Qatar in 2019. In June 2023, Al-Marri was elected as president of the United Nation's annual International Labour Conference.
Fatima Waziri-Azi is a Nigerian lawyer and the Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) of Nigeria. Before her appointment at NAPTIP she was an advisor on the rule of law to the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. She is a former Head of Department of Public Law at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and she is a woman rights advocate and a campaigner against domestic and sexual based violence.
Kamal Uddin Ahmed is a Bangladeshi retired government official who was the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission. He is the former Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
The Nigerian Law Society (NLS) is a professional association for legal practitioners in Nigeria. The NLS is a society of lawyers enrolled as barristers and solicitors of the Supreme Court under the Legal Practitioners Act of the country. A council of elected representatives from different parts of the country leads the NLS. It was established in October 2022. Mela Audu Nunghe, SAN, who is former Commissioner for Special Duties in Gombe State and first indigene of the state to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria is the President of the NLS.
Nasima Begum is a retired secretary and former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh, with the rank of a judge of the Appellate Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court. She was the first woman to head the commission. She was a member of the Bangladesh Planning Commission.
Kazi Reazul Hoque is a retired secretary and former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh with the rank and status of Appellate Division judge.
