Oji Umozurike is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

, activist and a former chairman of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, an organ of the inoperative

Organisation of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; , OUA) was an African intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 33 signatory governments. Some of the key aims of the OAU were to encourage political and ec ...

."Nigerian professor elected chairman of African human rights commission". The Xinhua General Overseas News Service, NOVEMBER 7, 1989. He is currently a professor of law at the

Abia State Abia is a state in the Southeastern region of Nigeria. The state's capital is Umuahia and its most populous city is Aba. Abia is bordered the west by Imo, east by Cross River, south by Rivers, northwest by Anambra and northeast by Enug ...

University.

Human Rights

Prof Oji Umozurike was a commissioner of the African Human Rights Commission from 1989 to the mid-1990s. As a member of the commission, he worked hard in promoting

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

in the continent. He tried to institute a public day of support and celebration on human rights of

Africans The ethnic groups of Africa number in the thousands, with each ethnicity generally having their own language (or dialect of a language) and culture. The ethnolinguistic groups include various Afroasiatic, Khoisan, Niger-Congo, and Nilo-Sahara ...

across the continent and the promotion of human rights

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

in Schools, he was also open and fair in its duties, visiting all countries assigned to him as commissioner including speaking in

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

during the inauguration of its

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Commission on Human Rights. However, he was less critical on matters affecting

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

restriction of human rights of Africans, mostly because he favoured a balance between the local human right laws and the African and International human rights norms. Nevertheless, this was partly a legacy of the organisation. When

OAU The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; , OUA) was an African intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 33 signatory governments. Some of the key aims of the OAU were to encourage political and ec ...

was formed in the 1960s, inclusive in its mission was to respect the

sovereignty Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...

of members against international manoeuvres, this was due to the rise in

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

and campaign against

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

during the period. Since then, the organisation for a large part of its existence before it became defunct favoured less promotion of overriding and binding regional or international laws on its members. Due to its mission and because of the mindset of member states to hold on their national laws, the commission was severely criticised as incapable of promoting human rights in Africa. Umozurike's view during his tenure was not far from the organisation's desire, he held the belief that the commission's human rights

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

though powerful is merely a paper tiger, as discretionary powers still concentrate in national or sovereign entities.Malcolm D. Evans, Rachel Murray, ''The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights: The System in Practice, 1986-2000''. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Umozurike, Oji Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Academic staff of Abia State University