THE IMPACT OF MASS MEDIA ON THE MANAGEMENT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN NIGERIA

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Human rights are generally moral rights claimed by everyone and held against everyone, especially against those who run social institutions (Orend, 2002). With the advent of the United Nations (UN) and the subsequent adoption of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, the concept of human rights has turned out to be one of the most contemporary issues across the globe. The UN Charter, which was adopted in 1945, was the first international document to recognize the protection and promotion of human rights as an obligation to be carried out by individual, as well as collective states (Langley, 1999). The main reason behind the adoption of the charter was, according to Smith (2007) to forestall the reoccurrence of the horrible events caused by two devastating world wars which were caused by massive violations of human rights and unbridled breach of territorial integrity. In addition to the effort of the UN, the state has basically been seen as the main actor in the promotion and protection of human rights. Unfortunately, states, according to Hakemulder et al (1998), are often the very abuser of the rights of the citizens they are required to protect. However, it should be noted that though the state bears the primary responsibility in issues of human rights, other organs of the society, such as corporations (Addo, 1999) are included in the protection of human rights. Although there are international human rights instruments which the UN has produced to serve as common standard of achievement for all people‟4, countless human rights violations occur across the globe. These violations could be committed by non-state actors through direct involvement or indirectly when they consent to such violations. Non-state actors such as „individuals, groups, informal or organised, ad hoc or continuous, may pose as „violators, protectors or intermediaries‟. Consequently, it is imperative that they be examined so that they could be held accountable for these violations.