Reports

“Between Hunger and the Virus”

The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on People Living in Poverty in Lagos, Nigeria

The 87-page report, “‘Between Hunger and the Virus,’ The Economic Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on People Living in Poverty in Lagos, Nigeria,” documents how a five-week lockdown, rising food prices, and a prolonged economic downturn have had a devastating impact on informal workers, slum dwellers, and other urban poor families in Lagos. The absence of a functioning social security system meant that government assistance, including cash transfers and food handouts, reached only a fraction of people going hungry.

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  • “You Pray for Death”

    Trafficking of Women and Girls in Nigeria

    This report documents human rights abuses committed against largely Nigerian women and girls who are trafficked for sexual and labor exploitation within and outside Nigeria. It also focuses on the experiences of non-Nigerian women and girls who are trafficked into Nigeria, most of them for domestic servitude.

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  • “They Forced Us Onto Trucks Like Animals”

    Cameroon’s Mass Forced Return and Abuse of Nigerian Refugees

    This report documents that since early 2015, Cameroonian soldiers have tortured, assaulted, and sexually exploited Nigerian asylum seekers in remote border areas, denied them access to the UN refugee agency, and summarily deported, often violently, tens of thousands to Nigeria.

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  • “Tell Me Where I Can Be Safe”

    The Impact of Nigeria’s Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act

    This report shows how the law, which took effect in January 2014, is used by some police officers and members of the public to legitimize abuses against LGBT people, including widespread extortion, mob violence, arbitrary arrest, torture in detention, and physical and sexual violence.

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  • “They Set the Classrooms on Fire”

    Attacks on Education in Northeast Nigeria

    This report documents Boko Haram’s increasingly brutal assaults on schools, students, and teachers since 2009 in Borno, Yobe, and Kano states. Between 2009 and 2015, Boko Haram’s attacks destroyed more than 910 schools and forced at least 1,500 more to close.

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  • Spiraling Violence

    Boko Haram Attacks and Security Force Abuses in Nigeria

    This 98-page report catalogues atrocities for which Boko Haram has claimed responsibility. It also explores the role of Nigeria’s security forces, whose own alleged abuses contravene international human rights law and might also constitute crimes against humanity.

  • Corruption on Trial?

    The Record of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission

    This 65-page report analyzes the record of the commission, Nigeria’s most important anti-corruption agency. Since the commission was established in December 2002, it has publicly challenged the longtime ironclad impunity of Nigeria’s political elite – an accomplishment without precedent in Nigeria.

  • “Everyone’s in on the Game”

    Corruption and Human Rights Abuses by the Nigeria Police Force

    This 102-page report documents the myriad forms of police corruption in Nigeria. It also shows how institutionalized extortion, a profound lack of political will to reform the force, and impunity combine to make police corruption a deeply embedded problem.

  • Arbitrary Killings by Security Forces

    Submission to the Investigative Bodies on the November 28-29, 2008 Violence in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria

    Human Rights Watch testified before the Plateau State Judicial Commission of Inquiry on July 20, 2009 in Jos, the capital of Plateau State in central Nigeria, where on November 28-29, 2008, sectarian violence between Muslim and Christian mobs left hundreds dead.

  • Politics as War

    The Human Rights Impact and Causes of Post-Election Violence in Rivers State, Nigeria

    This 55-page report is based on a two-week research mission that included interviews with victims, politicians, gang leaders, and law enforcement officials.

  • Criminal Politics

    Violence, “Godfathers” and Corruption in Nigeria

    This 123-page report documents the most important human rights dimensions of the Nigerian crisis of governance: politicians and other political elites openly encoura

  • Election or “Selection”?

    Human Rights Abuse and Threats to Free and Fair Elections in Nigeria

    In 1999, Nigeria made a definitive break with a post-independence history dominated by three decades of abusive and unaccountable military rule.

  • A Human Rights Agenda for Nigeria’s 2007 General Elections and Beyond

    This briefing paper outlines some of the key questions that candidates should consider if they are to tackle the human rights situation in the country: corruption; ethnic and political violence; reform of the security services; and reform of the electoral machinery.

  • "Chop Fine"

    The Human Rights Impact of Local Government Corruption and Mismanagement in Rivers State, Nigeria

    This 107-page report details the misuse of public funds by local officials in the geographic heart of Nigeria’s booming oil industry, and the harmful effects on primary education and basic health care.