Lawyer Assan Martin has urged Human Right journalists to do more in spreading the concept "that every nation have an obligation to respect human rights of its citizens" as their birthrights.
Mr. Martin, a human right lawyer made this statement while presenting on the theme "Overview of international Human Rights Laws" in a four-day training of human right journalists at the Gambia Press Union office.
He noted that, "whether we like it or not the reality is that human beings are inherently entitled to certain fundamental rights and freedoms that have roots at a very early human thinking." Undoubtedly, he said "the concept of human rights laws is not new and it is embedded in all biblical books either as God given rights or as birth rights."
"International human rights laws consist of the body of international rules, procedures and institutions which are developed to implement these concepts and to further promote the respect for human rights in all countries on a worldwide basis.
With such concepts, Mr. Martin explained "the family of nations can no longer turn a blind eye on gross violation that challenge their conscience as it happened in the genocide in Rwanda, events of former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone and Liberia and more so recently in Guinea Conakry."
"Initially the issue of state sovereignty have been the obstacle to international laws. But he retorted, as nations move over closer in the past decade, the issue of sovereignty has changed as nations came to realise that they do not exist alone and are under the responsibility of honouring their international obligations."
Lawyer Martin, further elucidated that it is expected that nations who has come up with protocols to implement those treaties into their respective national laws by the process called ratification.
