Posted by ccld201
1 April 2026In his book, Human Rights on Gender, Sex, and the Law in Nigeria, the late Yinka Olomojobi explains that human dignity provides a ‘powerful mechanism’ to protect and promote the rights of [its] citizens[1]. However, historical articulation of dignity in emancipatory texts was not always inclusive in practice. In many emancipation documents adopted before the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the invocation of “man” reflected a literal rather than gender-neutral understanding grounded in Kantian language[2]. Women were effectively excluded from the promise of equality embedded within those foundational texts. Hence the law can claim formal neutrality while perpetuating inequality, relying on the “chameleon” nature of legal identity to appear flexible and inclusive[3]. Yet, in practice this adaptable nature is structured around a model rights-holder shaped by male life experiences[4]. In Nigeria, this chameleon nature of law is amplified by legal pluralism, whereby overlapping systems can weaken consistent rights protection. While the 1999 Nigerian Constitution guarantees universal human dignity and gender equality, this post identifies how other elements of the Nigerian legal system simultaneously accommodate cultural practices and legal sources that undermine the human rights and dignity of women.
Justification of Gender-Based Violence in Law and Culture
In Nigeria, violations of dignity, particularly gender-based violence, manifest through domestic abuse, economic deprivation, psychological harm, and other systemic mistreatment of women. Several social justifications are often invoked to rationalise gender-based violence, typically framed around narratives of provocation, such as claims that a woman disrespected her in-laws, is suspected of infidelity, is accused of witchcraft, has refused sexual relations, or has challenged her husband’s anti-social behaviour[5]. These claims are often deployed to shift blame onto women and wives and to legitimise violence against them[6].
Moreover, Nigeria operates under legal pluralism, where statutory, customary, and religious legal systems coexist, sometimes producing tensions in the protection of women’s rights. Within this framework, certain forms of gender-based violence have been codified or legally mitigated. For instance, Section 55(1)(d) of the Penal Code Act permits a husband to “correct” his wife, as long as the correction does not amount to grievous hurt, a provision often linked to particular interpretations of Islamic jurisprudence, including Qur’anic verse An-Nisa 4:34. Additionally, Section 222(1) of the same Penal Code Act, provides for the partial defence of provocation, allowing culpable homicide punishable with death to be reduced when the offender was deprived of self-control by grave and sudden provocation. In practice, this defence has at times been invoked by men accused of killing their wives, particularly in cases involving allegations of infidelity, thereby reducing criminal liability.
Regional Diversity in the understanding of Sexual Violence, Statute of Limitation and the Legality of Marital Rape
Owing to Nigeria’s federal structure and legal pluralism, significant regional variation exists in the law of rape and sexual assault. For example, the legal framework in Lagos remains broadly like that of the United Kingdom in its definition of rape and sexual assault. Nigerian law places particular emphasis on non-consensual penetration as the central element of rape, while also criminalising other forms of sexual assault. This is particularly so with the emphasis on non-consensual penetration and the criminalisation of both rape and sexual assault by penetration, as reflected in the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015 and the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The Domestic and Sexual Violence Law of Lagos State 2007, adopts a broad definition of domestic violence encompassing physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse. In 2021, Lagos State was the first Nigerian state to establish a statutory agency dedicated to coordinating responses to domestic and sexual violence and to institutionalise a publicly accessible sex offenders register.
At the federal level, the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP Act) 2015 provides a more comprehensive definition of rape than earlier criminal statutes, recognising rape as non-consensual sexual penetration and expanding the concept beyond penile-vaginal intercourse to include other forms of penetration. It also criminalises spousal battery and certain harmful practices. Most states in Nigeria have now domesticated the VAPP Act 2015 or enacted equivalent gender-based violence legislation. However, in many states the status of this Act is either invalid or unclear.
However, under the Criminal Code applicable in Southern Nigeria, rape prosecutions have historically been constrained by a two-month statute of limitation (section 221(2) Criminal Code Act). In states like Jigawa and Kebbi, the progressive 2015 VAPP Act can be overridden by Sharia law, while other states such as Enugu have not clarified its relationship with existing rape laws[7]. In such jurisdictions, the definition of rape in the Criminal Code and the Penal Code exclude the recognition of marital rape. These laws are rooted in the 17th-century doctrine of Matthew Hale, which advanced the theory of implied and irrevocable consent within marriage, the same theory that dominated the UK common law until 1995. Beyond the law, evidentiary practices including corroboration entrench injustice: survivors’ testimony is often met with scepticism, and rape remains a “silent crime” due to stigma, fear of disbelief, and risks of counter accusations under some religious interpretations[8].
Economic and Psychological Violence
Economic and psychological violence are significant but often invisible forms of abuse affecting women[9]. Economic violence involves the denial of financial resources, prevention from obtaining employment, and deprivation of property, functioning as a form of coercive control that limits women’s independence[10].Psychological violence manifests itself through intimidation, threats, and social isolation, and is frequently normalised or overlooked in social discourse[11].
Sexual harassment and workplace violence also remain pervasive, occurring in both employment and educational environments[12]. Women frequently face quid pro quo demands, retaliation for resistance, and career stagnation as a result of harassment. Although the VAPP Act offers legal protection, enforcement remains weak, limiting its practical impact. Economic dependency further increases vulnerability to harassment, while workplace abuse reinforces structural inequality and constitutes another form of economic and psychological violence. Women disproportionately bear the burden of poverty, with about 70% of the extremely poor being women.
Harmful Traditional Practices
Finally, several issues uniquely affect women in Nigeria and Africa, including female genital mutilation (FGM), widowhood practices, and child marriage. Despite legal prohibitions, FGM persists, often justified through cultural narratives framed as tradition or purity, and it causes severe physical and psychological harm while violating bodily integrity and dignity. Widowhood practices also remain problematic, as property dispossession is still legally permissible in some contexts, and widows may be subjected to forced rituals and social ostracism, creating acute economic vulnerability. Child Marriage remains a challenge in much of the country.
International Law, Human Dignity and SW v United Kingdom
In international and European law, the evocation of human dignity has been foundational to gender equality as illustrated by the European Court of Human Rights ruling on the marital rape case in 1995 (SW v United Kingdom). The argument of human dignity has served as a key determinant in assessing what constitutes degrading treatment—particularly gendered degrading treatment[13] —an approach largely absent from Nigerian jurisprudence. By contrast, in South Africa, this has been achieved through the extrinsic linking of human dignity to the principles of non-discrimination and equality, as reflected in cases such as National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v Minister of Justice, Bhe v Magistrate. Olomojobi observed that “the manifestation of this (gender) inequality is a constant denial of women’s right to dignity.”[14] Nigerian law’s insistence on linking violations of dignity only to the most egregious human rights abuses, while overlooking the reality that such violations disproportionately affect individuals with protected or vulnerable identities, is a primary cause of the gender dignity gap in Nigeria.
Yinka Olomojobi conceptualised dignity as something that is socially realised through the effective protection of rights. Although state failure in Nigeria affects all citizens, as discussed in this post, women experience disproportionately compounded violations due to entrenched structural gender inequality. Legal reforms such as the VAPP Act 2015, represent meaningful progress in strengthening protection against gender-based violence. However, the full realisation of dignity requires similarly uniform legal protection across jurisdictions in the whole of Nigeria, the clear abolition of marital rape exemptions, stronger enforcement mechanisms, and sustained cultural transformation. Ultimately, the gendered dignity gap in Nigeria is not merely a social concern but a constitutional and human rights crisis that challenges the moral legitimacy of the Nigerian state.
You can read Part I of this post here.
You can read Part II of this post here.
Ayobami Ruth Olufemi-White. Esq LLB, BL is a lawyer, writer, political commentator and human rights advocate focusing on the intersections of international law, dignity law, legal theory, feminist theory and critical race theory. She earned her LLB with First Class Honours from the University of Exeter, receiving the Peter English Dissertation Prize. She was called to the Nigerian Bar in September 2025 and is a qualified Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
[1] Yinka Olomojobi, ‘Violation of Women’s Right to Dignity in Nigeria’ in Human Rights on Gender, Sex, and the Law in Nigeria (Princeton & Associates Publishing Co Ltd, 2021) 76.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ngaire Naffine, ‘In Praise of Legal Feminism’ (2002) 22 Legal Studies 99.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Yinka Olomojobi, ‘Violation of Women’s Right to Dignity in Nigeria’ in Human Rights on Gender, Sex, and the Law in Nigeria (Princeton & Associates Publishing Co Ltd, 2021) 82.
[6] Ibid.
[7] PAS Nigeria Health Foundation and Partners for Reproductive Justice, An Evaluation of the Implementation of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act/Law in Nigeria (IPAS Nigeria Health Foundation 2024) 18 https://ipasnigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/An-Evaluation-of-the-Implementation-of-the-VAPP-Law-in-Nigeria-compressed.pdf accessed 22 February 2026.
[8] Yinka Olomojobi, ‘Violation of Women’s Right to Dignity in Nigeria’ in Human Rights on Gender, Sex, and the Law in Nigeria (Princeton & Associates Publishing Co Ltd, 2021) 92.
[9] Ibid 96.
[10] Ibid 85.
[11] Ibid 98.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ayobami Olufemi-White, ‘The Right to Dignity Safeguards Abortion in a Liberal Democracy: Using Intersectionality and Dignity to Protect Abortion in a Liberal Democracy’ (2023–2024) 49 Exeter Law Review 164, 170.
[14] Yinka Olomojobi, ‘Violation of Women’s Right to Dignity in Nigeria’ in Human Rights on Gender, Sex, and the Law in Nigeria (Princeton & Associates Publishing Co Ltd, 2021) 92.