STATUS AND SCOPE OF ENFORCEABILITY OF THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria is a “dualist” state where international laws and treaties do not apply automatically in her domestic jurisdiction. Under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, section 12, international obligations are not automatically treated as operable domestic law unless ratified and declared enforceable by legislative action. Against this backdrop, this paper investigated the status and scope of enforceability of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 1981 in Nigeria. The paper established that the African Charter has been ratified as domestic law vide African Charter on Human and Peoples’s Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act 1983 Through consideration of decided cases, it was also established that although the African Charter is part of Nigeria’s domestic laws, it has limited application as its provisions are still subordinated to the supremacy of the Nigerian Courts. Thus, provisions of the African Charter that relate to economic, social and cultural rights remain non-justiciable because of the blanket ban on enforceability of these genre of rights under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, section 6(6)(c). It was thus recommended that this constitutional barrier should be abrogated and the economic, social and cultural rights of the African Charter declared justiciable and enforceable.