NHRC Seeks Justice-Based Approach To Africa’s Security Crisis

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has called for a fundamental shift in Africa’s response to insecurity, warning that military operations alone cannot deliver lasting peace without justice, accountability and protection of socio-economic rights.

The Commission said conflicts, terrorism and communal violence across the continent must be addressed through a holistic justice-centred framework that tackles the underlying conditions fuelling insecurity, including poverty, marginalisation, youth unemployment and weak governance.

The position was contained in a paper presented by the NHRC at the 2026 African Bar Association Conference in Cape Verde, themed: “Resilient Africa’s Roadmap for Sustainable Development.” The paper, titled: “Legal Mechanisms to Ensure Access to Justice in Regions Affected by Security Threats,” drew lessons from Nigeria’s North-East insurgency and the farmer-herder crisis in Benue State.

According to the Commission, existing legal and institutional arrangements have left significant gaps in access to justice for victims of conflict. It identified the non-justiciability of socio-economic rights under Section 6(6)(c) of the 1999 Constitution, non-binding decisions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, restrictions on access to the African Court under Article 34(6), and the largely punitive orientation of the Terrorism Act 2022 as major challenges.

The NHRC said its data further demonstrated the human cost of insecurity, recording 530 cases involving denial of food and shelter, 195 cases of gender-based violence and 324 barriers to education, while 1,850 internally displaced persons were documented in Benue State alone.

The Commission said it had responded through interventions including monitoring of terrorism trials at Kainji in 2024, where it identified due-process concerns, as well as its Transitional Justice Programme in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, implemented with support from the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme. It said the programme had resolved 372 cases, referred 1,157 others and conducted 331 outreaches in IDP camps.

On the controversial investigation into the military’s alleged abortion programme in the North-East, the NHRC clarified that its investigation under the Strategic Investigation and Intervention Programme (SIIP) found no evidence of a systematic abortion of 10,000 pregnancies. However, it said evidence established that a military attack on Abisari community on June 18, 2016, resulted in the deaths of 18 people, prompting recommendations for compensation and prosecution.

The Commission also cited judgments of the ECOWAS Court in suits ECW/CCJ/APP/11/16 and ECW/CCJ/APP/16/18, which ordered Nigeria to investigate killings in Benue and provide redress to victims, as examples of the need to translate judicial decisions into practical remedies.

To bridge the justice gap, the NHRC proposed a four-pillar framework built around enforceable socio-economic rights, specialised mobile Conflict Resolution Courts, recognition of alternative dispute resolution and traditional justice mechanisms, and the establishment of a National Dignity Fund to provide reparations to victims.

It, therefore, recommended constitutional amendments to strengthen socio-economic rights, establishment of specialised courts for conflict-related disputes, ratification of Nigeria’s declaration permitting individual access to the African Court, and implementation of relevant ECOWAS Court and SIIP recommendations.

The Commission stressed that sustainable development and lasting peace would remain difficult to achieve without legal institutions capable of protecting rights, resolving disputes and providing effective remedies to victims of insecurity.

The Director of Corporate Affairs and External Linkages, Fatimah Agwai Mohammed, disclosed the Commission’s position.