Assessing Human Rights in Developing Countries: Nigeria's Experience

This report examines the impact of international human rights instruments, specifically the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Women's Protocol, in developing countries, with a detailed focus on Nigeria. It investigates the influence of these legal instruments on executive and legislative actions, including policy reforms and legislative outcomes. The research assesses the impact on Nigeria's legal system and identifies the governmental policies and judicial references related to the Charter and Protocol. The study also explores the research methodology used, which includes thematic analysis of secondary data resources. The report aims to evaluate the success and challenges of implementing these human rights instruments within the Nigerian context and provide insights into the country's progress in upholding human rights standards.

Running head: HUMAN RIGHTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Human Rights in developing Countries
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Background of the study..................................................................................................................2
Thesis Statement..............................................................................................................................3
Aims and objectives of the research................................................................................................4
Research Question...........................................................................................................................4
Scope of the Study...........................................................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................5
Impact on Executive actions (Policy reforms).............................................................................5
Impact on legislative actions.......................................................................................................6
Research Methodology....................................................................................................................7
Methods to tackle the problem........................................................................................................8
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The purpose of the international law is to authorize states to identify and accept human
rights, incorporate them into their national laws and constitutions, and respect the rights. The
state parties must ensure that the rights are enjoyed by the nationals through their national
institutions and incorporate them into their national ways of life. In 1986, the African Charter
on Human and People’s Rights (African Charter) was enforced and the 2003 Protocol to the
African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Women’s Protocol) was adopted
as a response to the non-implementation of the African Charter and other relevant legal
international instruments with respect to the rights of women1. However, even after 10 years of
the African Charter and 8 years of the Women’s Protocol, majority of people within the African
continent are not even aware of the existence of these instruments2. Taking Nigeria, as the case
study, this research aims at assessing the impact of these legal instruments on the Nigerian
people whose interests are purported to be served by these international legal instruments.
Background of the study
The reason behind taking Nigeria as the case study is twofold. Firstly, Nigeria is one of
the founding state parties to the African Charter and the Women’s Protocol and is apparently the
only Anglophone African state that has directly domesticated the African Charter. Secondly,
Nigeria comprises 20 percent of the African population, which implies that the African Charter
and the Women’s Protocol affects the 20 percent of the African people3.
1 Union, African. "Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples ‘Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa
(Maputo Protocol), 11 July 2003." (2016).
2 Tomuschat, Christian. Human rights: between idealism and realism. OUP Oxford, 2014.
3 Tadesse, Mizanie Abate. "The African Women Protocol as Supplemental to the African Charter and Other Human
Rights Instruments: A Brief Analysis." Bahir Dar UJL 5 (2014): 1.

3HUMAN RIGHTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
According to Smith (2018) the human right treaties is said to have an impact at two
levels. Firstly, it may have an impact through the individual complaints and state reporting with
respect to the domestic enforcement of the international human rights standards4. Secondly, it
may have an impact through the internalization of international human rights rules or standards
at the domestic level5. McCorquodale (2017) states that it is essential to assess the extent to
which human rights treaties have been successful at the domestic level to serve the interests of
the nationals. This is because it shall enable the country to determine the progress that the
country had undergone which will further assist in determining the potential challenges and roles
of the human right treaties in the future6.
Thesis Statement
The thesis statement of this research paper relates to the consequence of the
implementation of the African Charter and the Women’s Protocol in Africa, focusing mainly on
Nigeria, as it is one of the founding State parties to the Charter as well as the Protocol and the
only country to incorporate the charter into its domestic law7. The Women’s Protocol was
implemented to compensate inadequacy in the Africa Charter with respect to women’s rights.
Although the African Charter has been domesticated as African Charter Act but the Women’s
Protocol is yet to be domesticated due to lack of concrete efforts.
Aims and objectives of the research
The aim and objectives of the research are as follows:
4 Smith, Rhona. International Human Rights Law. Oxford University Press, 2018.
5 Khaliq, Urfan, ed. International Human Rights Law Documents. Cambridge University Press, 2018.
6 McCorquodale, Robert. "Human Rights." (2017).
7 Dugard, John. Human rights and the South African legal order. Princeton University Press, 2015.

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 To examine the impact assessment of the adoption of the African Charter and the
Women’s Protocol;
 To recognize the governmental policies that have been reviewed or adopted to implement
the Protocol or Charter;
 To assess and identify judicial references to the Protocol, Charter and consequences of
such references on the human rights system in Nigeria;
Research Question
The research questions are as follows:
 What is impact assessment of the adoption of the African Charter and the Women’s
Protocol in Africa, especially Nigeria?
 What are the governmental policies that have been reviewed or adopted to implement the
Protocol or Charter?
 What are the judicial references to the Protocol, Charter and consequences of such
references on the human rights system in Nigeria?
Scope of the Study
The study shall be based on the domestic impact assessment of the African Charter and
the Women’s Protocol on Nigeria. It is essential to assess the impact of the legal instruments as
it determines the failure or success of any international human rights system, which is dependent
on the impact the legal instrument makes on the domestic system at the country level8. The
research focuses on Nigeria, as it is one of the founding signatories to the African Charter and
8 Obiora, L. Amede, and Crystal Whalen. "What is Right with Africa: The Promise of the Protocol on Women's
Rights in Africa." Transnat'l Hum. Rts. Rev. 2 (2015): 153.

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the Women’s Protocol, which is also the only country to incorporate the African Charter in its
domestic legislatures. Consequently, the high-level engagement of the Nigerian civil society
organizations with the Africa Charter System implies that the African Commission’s
jurisprudence is more associated with Nigeria compared to any other African state party to the
Protocol or the Charter. The assessment of the impact is much broader than the implementation
of the legal instrument and the compliance-based approach towards such instruments9. For the
purpose of the study, the research concentrates on all forms of effect and influence that the legal
instruments exert on state institutions, civil society in Nigeria and non-state actors.
Literature Review
Impact on Executive actions (Policy reforms)
The African Charter and the Women’s Protocol have inspired the development of
several policies in Nigeria. These policies seek to safeguard the human rights of the particular
group of people or in general. Unlike the legislations, the policies are more comprehensive, goal-
oriented and flexible in nature and though they do not have a binding effect, they provide moral
basis for legal actions, such as the National Action Plan [NAP] for the Promotion and
Protection of Human Rights in Nigeria be developed. It includes rights that have been drawn
from regional, domestic and international human rights instruments and has been significantly
influenced by the African Charter. The National Gender Policy is associated with the
provisions of major international instrument on women’s right including the Women’s Protocol.
9 Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. African women: A modern history. Routledge, 2018.

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Impact on legislative actions
The ultimate objective of the international human rights system is to ensure that states
must abide by the provisions of the human treaties within the territories10. Under the African
human rights system, it lacks effective mechanism for ‘direct enforcement’ of treaty rules,
hence, effectiveness of human rights treaties in Africa depends on the incorporation of the rules
into the domestic laws. The assessment of the impact of the treaties on domestic legislations
commences with the Constitution being the legal basis of the legal system as well as of the inter-
governmental relations more so in Nigeria where the Constitution has adopted dualist system.
The African Charter has influenced the Legislative outcomes in Nigeria in two significant ways
as there are cases of direct causality and instances of correspondence in norms.
Direct causality:
After the adoption of the African Charter, the Nigeria National Assembly passed the
Africa Charter (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, which led to the incorporation of the
Charter into the Nigerian legal system.
Correspondence in norms:
Although several human rights related legislations have been adopted such as Child Rights
Act 2003, Trafficking Persons Prohibition Act 2003, etc which were not related to the African
Charter neither the Women’s Protocol. However, only two legislations were identified to be
associated with the African Charter, which includes National Human Rights Commission
(Amendment) Act 2010 and the Treaty to Establish the African Union (Ratification and
10 Donnelly, Jack, and Daniel J. Whelan. International human rights. Hachette UK, 2017.

7HUMAN RIGHTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
enforcement) Act 2003. However, these legislations did not include any references about
Women’s Protocol.
Although, the Women’s Protocol was not domesticated, several state legislative assemblies
have adopted laws relating to provisions of the Women’s Protocol like trafficking in women,
gender equality, domestic violence, harmful customary practices, reproductive health rights,
etc11. Therefore, even though the domestic laws of the country do not refer to the Women’s
Protocol or the African Charter, there is a significant compliance between the rules entailed in
these domestic legislations and the rules stipulated in the Charter and the Protocol12.
Research Methodology
The research shall be qualitative in nature and data for this research shall be collected
using the secondary resources. Secondary data resources include articles, journals, books, etc.
While conducting the data analysis, the study shall use information about the impact assessment
of the African Charter and the Women’s Protocol on Nigeria and other developing countries
shall be used from existing studies. This will provide assurance about consistency in depth and
scope and will ensure authenticity of the information. The researcher will maintain
confidentiality of the information, thus, ensuring ethical means used to retrieve information
through secondary sources.
Methods to tackle the problem
The researcher will use thematic analysis method to deal with the aims and objectives of
the research paper. The researcher shall be using thematic analysis to analyze the information
11 Ngwena, Charles G., Eunice Brookman‐Amissah, and Patty Skuster. "Human rights advances in women's
reproductive health in Africa." International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics 129.2 (2015): 184-187.
12 Durojaye, Ebenezer. Litigating the Right to Health in Africa: Challenges and Prospects. Routledge, 2016.

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obtained through secondary sources. This form of analysis shall include several themes based on
the research topic for which, detail explanation shall be provided in the research paper.

9HUMAN RIGHTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Bibliography
Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. African women: A modern history. Routledge, 2018.
Donnelly, Jack, and Daniel J. Whelan. International human rights. Hachette UK, 2017.
Dugard, John. Human rights and the South African legal order. Princeton University Press,
2015.
Durojaye, Ebenezer. Litigating the Right to Health in Africa: Challenges and Prospects.
Routledge, 2016.
Khaliq, Urfan, ed. International Human Rights Law Documents. Cambridge University Press,
2018.
McCorquodale, Robert. "Human Rights." (2017).
Ngwena, Charles G., Eunice Brookman‐Amissah, and Patty Skuster. "Human rights advances in
women's reproductive health in Africa." International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics 129.2
(2015): 184-187.
Obiora, L. Amede, and Crystal Whalen. "What is Right with Africa: The Promise of the Protocol
on Women's Rights in Africa." Transnat'l Hum. Rts. Rev. 2 (2015): 153.
Smith, Rhona. International Human Rights Law. Oxford University Press, 2018.
Tadesse, Mizanie Abate. "The African Women Protocol as Supplemental to the African Charter
and Other Human Rights Instruments: A Brief Analysis." Bahir Dar UJL 5 (2014): 1.
Tomuschat, Christian. Human rights: between idealism and realism. OUP Oxford, 2014.

10HUMAN RIGHTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Union, African. "Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples ‘Rights on the Rights of
Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol), 11 July 2003." (2016).