The Vice-Chair of Parliament’s Human Rights Committee and Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, Kingsley Agyemang, has called on African countries to intensify efforts to educate citizens on human rights and empower them to understand and defend their freedoms.
Speaking after leading members of the committee to a conference in The Gambia, Dr. Agyemang said increasing public awareness on human rights is essential to addressing many of the continent’s social and developmental challenges.
According to him, many cases of abuse and neglect persist because citizens are often unaware of their rights and the responsibility of governments to protect them.
“It is important that we educate people on human rights and human rights violations. People need to know their rights so they can demand accountability and justice where necessary,” he said.
Dr. Agyemang explained that issues such as preventable diseases, poor healthcare systems, unsafe roads and lack of access to clean water should also be seen as human rights concerns.
“When a child dies from a preventable disease, that is a human rights issue because every child has the right to live and should not die from illnesses that can be prevented,” he stated.
He also highlighted the struggles faced by many women in rural communities, particularly pregnant women who travel long distances in search of water under unsafe conditions.
“When a pregnant woman has to walk long distances to fetch water and gets bitten by a snake, that is also a human rights issue because she is being denied access to quality roads and clean, accessible water,” he added.
The Abuakwa South MP stressed that education remains one of the strongest tools for addressing human rights challenges and proposed the inclusion of human rights studies in school curricula across Africa.
He suggested that human rights education should be introduced at the basic, secondary and tertiary levels to help raise a generation that better understands justice, equality and civic responsibility.
Dr. Agyemang further called on churches, marketplaces, civil society organisations and community groups to actively promote conversations around human rights issues.
According to him, broadening public understanding of human rights would help strengthen democracy and improve the quality of life for citizens across the continent.
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