Human Rights Violations Still High in Nigeria, Says Amnesty | Nairalaw

Global human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has
raised concern over the inability of the federal government to hold
those involved in human rights violation accountable.

In a statement by the Media Manager of Amnesty International
Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, the group decried what it described as
pervasive violence against women.

According to the statement, these include purported rape of
women and girls at various Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP)
camps, as well as sexual violence against female detainees by
security operatives, sometimes in order to extract confessions.

The group said it was worried that the violations have
continued, despite the passage of the Violence Against Persons
Prohibition (VAPP) Act by the National Assembly in 2015.

“While welcoming Nigeria’s acceptance of recommendations to
intensify efforts to combat gender-based violence, the organisation
urges the government to ensure that victims throughout the
Federation can seek legal redress for gender-based violations, in
line with the provisions of the VAPP,” it said.

“Since the beginning of the armed conflict in North-east Nigeria
in 2009, Amnesty International has documented war crimes and other
human rights abuses by Boko Haram and serious violations of
international humanitarian and human rights law by the security
forces, including arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced
disappearances, unlawful killings and extrajudicial executions,” it
stated further.

It, however, frowned on the lack of accountability for crimes
committed by Boko Haram, as well as by government forces in the
fight against the insurgents, and called on the government to
ensure that the perpetrators were brought to justice in fair
trials.

The organisation noted that several states had called on the
federal government to strengthen the protection of the rights to
freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.

In order to promote these rights, it disclosed that it recently
launched a campaign on freedom of expression in Nigeria.
Amnesty International explained that this was a platform to call on
the government to ensure that journalists and other media
professionals could operate without fear of arrests or other
reprisals.

Noting that the Human Rights Council has adopted a Universal
Periodic Review (UPR) outcome on Nigeria, the group commended the
nation’s cooperation with the review process and its positive
response to some of the recommendations made by other states in the
UPR Working Group.

The rights group had in 2018 accused Nigerian security forces of
raping thousands of women and girls at IDPs’ camps in the
country.

Before the release of AI’s report, the Nigerian Military had
announced that it had received credible intelligence report of a
plan by the Amnesty International to release a false report on
“fictitious rape incidents” in IDPs camps in the North-east region
of Nigeria, urging the public to disregard the report.

However, AI released the report, entitled “They betrayed us”,
the global rights group reported “how the Nigerian military and
Civilian Joint Task Force (Civilian JTF) have separated women from
their husbands and confined them in remote ‘satellite camps’ where
they have been raped, sometimes in exchange for food.”

Amnesty International said it has collected evidence that
thousands of people have starved to death in the camps in Borno
State, north-east Nigeria, since 2015.

“It is absolutely shocking that people who had already suffered
so much under Boko Haram have been condemned to further horrendous
abuse by the Nigerian military,” said Osai Ojigho, Director of
Amnesty International Nigeria.
“Instead of receiving protection from the authorities, women and
girls have been forced to succumb to rape in order to avoid
starvation or hunger.”

It said women had reported being beaten and called “Boko Haram
wives” by the security officials when they complained about their
treatment.

“As Nigeria’s military recovered territory from the armed group
in 2015, it ordered people living in rural villages to the
satellite camps, in some cases indiscriminately killing those who
remained in their homes. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled
or were forced from these areas.

“The military screened everyone arriving to the satellite camps,
and in some locations detained most men and boys aged between 14
and 40 as well as women who travelled unaccompanied by their
husbands. The detention of so many men has left women to care for
their families alone.