Amnesty International (AI) Nigeria has stated that
despite overwhelming evidence of human rights violations, the Nigerian
authorities have failed to prosecute offenders and ensure accountability.
It said the revelation was necessary following the
review yesterday of the country's role on human rights at the 31st session
of the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group.
In a statement made available to the media on Tuesday,
the Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, Ossai Ojigho, said there are
also concerns about restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression,
association and peaceful assembly and continued imposition of the death penalty
in the country.
He said: "It is clear that Nigeria is not
making progress in terms of bringing human rights violators to justice. We
consistently called for accountability but the government hardly takes concrete
steps to tame the tide of impunity across the country by making sure those
responsible for human rights violations are brought to justice.
“In its previous review in 2013, Nigeria pledged to
commit to criminalising torture, prevent and reduce human rights violations by
the security forces, strengthening accountability mechanisms, addressing
communal violence, improve economic, social and cultural rights implementation
as well as protect women’s rights. But none of these has happened,” Ojigho
said.
The director explained that across Nigeria, there
was increasing concern over human rights violations by security forces, adding
that despite efforts by the government, through the army-led Special Board of
Inquiry and the Presidential Investigative Panel, to review compliance by the
armed forces with human rights, the authorities were yet to hold them
accountable for gross human rights violations.
Ossai said the Gender and Equal Opportunities bill
which is still pending before the National Assembly contains provisions to
prohibit discrimination against women, and would override current
discriminatory laws, policies, rules, directives and customs, and also sets out
provisions to address harmful cultural practices that violate the rights of
widows.
"In its previous review, Nigeria accepted
three recommendations on access to adequate housing and ending forced
evictions. However, thousands of people continue to be at risk of forced
evictions across the country with very few laws and safeguards in place to
stipulate the process for lawful evictions.
“Between 2015 and 2017, about 40,000 poor urban
dwellers were forcibly evicted in Lagos State. In some instances, the state
authorities ignored court orders declaring forced evictions unlawful. By
contrast, in February 2017, the FCT authorities respected a court judgment to
stop the eviction of thousands of people in the Mpape community,” he added.
The human rights body, therefore, called on the
Nigerian authorities to amend the constitution to guarantee economic, social
and cultural rights as human rights, and to make them enforceable in court.
It said to end violence against women, measures
should be made to ensure that Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act passed
by the National Assembly in 2015 is applicable in all 36 states.
He added: "A moratorium should be established on
mass evictions until adequate legal and procedural safeguards are in place to
ensure that all evictions comply with international human rights standards,
including through the adoption of legislation to explicitly prohibit forced
evictions and guidelines to ensure that evictions are carried out in compliance
with the United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-Based
Evictions and Displacement."
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