Committee against Torture

List of issues prior to submission of the second periodic report of Nigeria *

Specific information on the implementation of articles 1–16 of the Convention, including with regard to the Committee’s previous recommendations

Issues identified for follow-up in the previous concluding observations

1.In its previous concluding observations, the Committee requested the State Party to provide information on the follow-up to its recommendations on allegations of torture, ill‑treatment, arbitrary detention and excessive use of force, in particular by members of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, pretrial detention and overcrowding, the national preventive mechanism and gender-based violence (see paras. 14 (b), 18, 22 and 32, respectively). Noting that replies concerning the information sought by the Committee were provided on 1 December 2022, and with reference to the letter dated 27 April 2023 from the Committee’s Rapporteur for follow-up to concluding observations, the Committee considers that the information provided by the State Party concerning the above-mentioned recommendations have been only partially implemented.

Articles 1 and 4

2.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please indicate whether any legislative steps have been envisaged to bring the definition of torture in the Anti-Torture Act fully into line with article 1 of the Convention. In particular, please specify whether the definition provides for two separate purposes of the act of torture, as follows: “to intimidate or coerce a person or a third person” or “for any reason based on discrimination of any kind”. Please clarify whether the crime of torture is exempted from the statute of limitations and whether it is explicitly excluded from the scope of amnesty and pardon provisions in the national legislation.

Article 2

3.In the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide information on measures taken by the State Party to ensure that all detainees enjoy all fundamental legal safeguards, in law and in practice, from the outset of their deprivation of liberty. In particular, please provide information on any measures to ensure that detained persons are afforded the following rights: (a) to have ready access to a lawyer of their choice or, if necessary, to free legal aid, including in cases concerning capital punishment, without delay and in full confidentiality; (b) to notify a relative or any other person of their choice of their detention and whereabouts; (c) to request and receive an examination by an independent medical doctor, free of charge, and the right to pay to be seen by a medical doctor of their choice; and (d) to be brought promptly before a judge, regardless of the reason for their arrest and to have the lawfulness of their detention reviewed by a judicial authority, in accordance with law and applicable international standards. Please provide details of the specific measures taken to prevent cases of arbitrary and incommunicado detention at all stages of the proceedings, to ensure accurate and detailed recording of persons’ deprivation of liberty, including information on interrogations, incidents in detention and medical records for each detainee, and to ensure access to the register of detainees by their respective lawyers, with their clients’ consent, and relatives. Please provide information on further steps taken during the reporting period to equip all police interrogation rooms with an audio or video system to record interrogations. Please explain steps taken to provide the human and financial resources needed to ensure the proper functioning of all local branches of the Legal Aid Council. In addition, please provide information on cases in which the authorities failed to respect fundamental legal safeguards, including disciplinary sanctions imposed.

4.In the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations and the letter dated 27 April 2023 from the Committee’s Rapporteur for follow-up to concluding observations, please provide updated information on the measures taken to guarantee legal, operational and financial independence of the recently created national preventive mechanism. In addition, please provide information on the measures taken to ensure adequate financial and human resources of the national preventive mechanism in line with the Optional Protocol to the Convention and the guidelines of the Subcommittee on national preventive mechanisms. Please provide details about the composition of the mechanism, the number of regular monitoring visits conducted by the mechanism since its designation and any reports on its findings published and/or shared with the national authorities. Finally, please provide details about steps taken to authorize non-governmental human rights organizations, other than those providing healthcare and education programmes, to undertake monitoring activities at detention centres.

5.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, as well as the letter dated 27 April 2023 from the Committee’s Rapporteur for follow-up to concluding observations, please provide information on the measures taken to prevent and combat all forms of violence against women, especially those cases involving actions or omissions by State authorities or other entities that engage the international responsibility of the State Party under the Convention. In particular, please provide updated information on any legislative or other measures adopted during the reporting period, including the application of the Violence against Persons (Prohibition) Act in all states, to protect women and girls from sexual and domestic violence, abuse and rape. Please describe further steps taken to protect internally displaced persons, especially women and girls, from sexual exploitation and abuse in state-run camps and informal camps, as well as in local communities in Borno State, and across the north-east. Please provide details on the steps taken to address the ongoing widespread sexual and gender-based violence inflicted by Boko Haram and the insufficient protection afforded to girls and boys from kidnapping by armed groups. Please specify the measures adopted to ensure effective investigations into all allegations of sexual violence against women and girls committed by State actors, particularly the Civilian Joint Task Force officers, to prosecute alleged perpetrators and to provide redress to victims, including adequate compensation and access to medical services and counselling. In addition to the information provided in the State Party’s follow-up report, please submit updated and comprehensive statistical data on the number of complaints and the investigations, prosecutions, convictions and sentences resulting from these complaints. Please include information on the financial resources allocated by the State Party to the Special Investigation Panel on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and the relevant law enforcement and prosecution agencies to investigate and prosecute gender-based violence, including violence against women, as well as to protection services for victims of gender-based violence during the reporting period, including in rural areas. Finally, please explain whether the State party has adopted any effective measures to prevent and eradicate female genital mutilation and to provide adequate protection for girls at risk and provide details on the results of such measures.

6.Please provide statistical data on the number of criminal cases involving trafficking in persons, in particular the number of convictions and sentences handed down and the number of victims who have received redress. Please indicate any specific measures taken to combat trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation, trafficking in children, forced labour and child marriages, and provide information on the resources allocated to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and Other Related Matters and the delivery of assistance adequately tailored to the needs of victims of trafficking during the reporting period.

7. Please indicate whether orders from a superior officer or a public authority may be invoked under Nigerian law as a justification for torture and whether there are any circumstances in which a subordinate is permitted lawfully to oppose an order to commit acts of torture.

Article 3

8.Please describe the measures taken to ensure that no person is returned to a country in which he or she would be at risk of torture. Please indicate the procedure followed when a person invokes the rights guaranteed under article 3 of the Convention. Please describe the measures taken to guarantee effective access to the procedure for determining refugee status. Please outline the measures taken to ensure that procedural safeguards against refoulement are in place and that effective remedies, in particular review by an independent judicial body, are available during removal proceedings, especially at the appeal stage. Please indicate whether individuals facing expulsion, return or extradition are informed that they have the right to seek asylum and to appeal a deportation decision and, if they do, whether such an appeal has suspensive effect. Please provide updated information on the number of asylum applications received during the period under review, the number of successful applications and the number of persons whose applications were accepted because they had been tortured or might be tortured if returned to their country of origin, as well as the number of persons who have been returned, extradited or expelled during the period under review, and a list of the countries to which such persons were returned. Please also indicate the number of returns, extraditions and expulsions carried out by the State party during the period under review on the basis of diplomatic assurances or the equivalent thereof. Please indicate the minimum content of any such assurances or guarantees and what measures have been taken in such cases with regard to subsequent monitoring.

Articles 5–9

9.Please provide information on any new legislation or measures that have been adopted to implement article 5 of the Convention fully. Please inform the Committee of any extradition treaties concluded with other States Parties and indicate whether the offences referred to in article 4 of the Convention are included as extraditable offences in such treaties. Please indicate what measures have been adopted by the State Party to comply with its obligation to extradite or prosecute (aut dedere aut judicare). Please clarify what treaties or agreements on mutual legal and judicial assistance that the State Party has entered into, and whether such treaties or agreements have led in practice to the transfer of any evidence in connection with prosecutions concerning torture or ill-treatment. If so, please provide examples.

Article 10

10.Please provide information on educational programmes developed by the State Party to train public officials involved in the custody, interrogation and treatment of persons deprived of liberty on the provisions of the Convention, including the use of force in custodial settings and especially on preventing and minimizing violence during arrest, as well asmeasures to ensure respect for and protection of persons belonging to religious or belief minorities in all places of deprivation of liberty. Please also specify whether the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials have been incorporated into such trainings. Please indicate whether these training activities are mandatory or optional, how often they are conducted and how many officials have already completed them in relation to the total number of such officials. Please indicate whether police, national security and military officers, judges and public prosecutors have received mandatory training emphasizing the link between non-coercive interrogation techniques and the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, and whether the Principles on Effective Interviewing for Investigations and Information-Gathering (the Méndez Principles) have been incorporated into such training. Please explain whether any training has been provided to judges, prosecutors and legal professionals on using trauma-related and gender-specific questioning techniques throughout criminal proceedings. Please indicate whether the State Party has developed a methodology to assess the effectiveness and impact of training and educational programmes in reducing cases of torture and ill-treatment and, if so, please provide information on it.

11.Please provide information on any training programmes developed for judges, prosecutors, forensic doctors and medical personnel dealing with persons deprived of liberty on detecting and documenting the physical and psychological sequelae of torture, including specific training on the Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol), as revised.

12.Please indicate any measures adopted, including any training that has been provided to the military and Civilian Joint Task Force personnel, in order to strengthen their compliance with the international human rights law and international humanitarian law, to ensure the safety and security of the population affected by the violence, and to prevent human rights violations in the context of security and counter-insurgency operations.

Article 11

13.Please update the Committee on the procedures in place for ensuring compliance with article 11 of the Convention. Please provide information on any interrogation rules, instructions, methods, practices and arrangements for custody,] and indicate the frequency with which they are reviewed. With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations and the letter dated 27 April 2023 from the Committee’s Rapporteur for follow-up to concluding observations, please provide updated statistical data, disaggregated by the place of detention, sex, age group (whether minor or adult) and ethnicity or nationality of detained, on the capacity and occupancy rate of all places of detention. Please provide information on further steps taken to address the overuse of prolonged pretrial detention, including the promotion of alternative non-custodial measures. Please provide statistical data for the period under consideration on the use of such alternative measures, in particular for children in conflict with the law. Please provide further information on the implementation of section 34 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, which mandates judicial oversight of pretrial detention by law enforcement agencies without a court order. In particular, please provide statistical data on the number of oversight visits conducted and the number of persons released from detention as a result of these visits since 2022. In addition, please provide further details on the draft plea bargain guidelines developed in 2021 to support the implementation of section 272 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act. Please include any measurable outcomes achieved, especially in relation to the reduction of prolonged trials and pretrial detentions.

14.Taking note of the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide detailed information on measures taken to improve material conditions of detention in police holding cells, correctional facilities and military detention facilities. In particular, please indicate the steps taken to reduce overcrowding in places of detention, and to improve sanitation, ventilation and access to adequate food and water in all places of deprivation of liberty. Please inform the Committee of the measures taken to ensure that detainees have access to educational, recreational, vocational, physical and intellectual activities. Please explain whether prisoners who are or were formerly on death row benefit from the same regime as other prisoners, in accordance with international standards. Please describe the efforts made to address the specific needs of women deprived of their liberty, in particular pregnant women, women held in detention with their children and women on death row; persons with disabilities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons; and older persons. Please provide information on measures adopted to ensure, in practice, the separation of pretrial detainees from convicted prisoners and minors from adults, and specify in which facilities detainees are not yet separated in this way. Please indicate what steps the State Party has taken to ensure that remanded and convicted persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities are transferred from custodial facilities to psychiatric hospitals or appropriate therapeutic settings, as necessary.

15.Please indicate steps taken to allocate the human and material resources necessary for the proper healthcare of prisoners, including psychiatric care, and to conduct a thorough and independent medical examination of all detainees, both at the outset of detention and on a regular basis throughout the duration of detention. Please inform the Committee about the evaluation of the programmes and other initiatives in place for the prevention of suicide and self-harm, as well as for the prevention, detection and treatment of chronic degenerative diseases and infectious or contagious diseases in prisons. Please provide data regarding deaths in custody, including deaths in military custody, during the period under consideration, disaggregated by year, place of detention, sex, age and cause of death. Please provide detailed information on the number and outcomes of investigations conducted in such cases, specifying whether forensic medical assessments, including autopsies, were performed. Please include data on the number of deaths suspected of having been caused by assaults committed or tolerated by government officials involving the excessive use of force or the failure to provide detainees with the medical attention and timely treatment needed. Please clarify whether any training has been provided to forensic, health and legal professionals, and law enforcement and prosecution personnel, on the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death.

16.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations and the letter dated 27 April 2023 from the Committee’s Rapporteur for follow-up to concluding observations, please indicate the measures taken to ensure that all persons deprived of liberty have access to an effective, independent and accessible complaints mechanism through which they can transmit confidential allegations of torture or ill‑treatment to the National Human Rights Commission or any other independent investigative authority that cannot be accessed by the administrators of the detention facility in which they are held. Please specify the steps taken to establish effective complaints mechanisms available for children in conflict with the law in juvenile institutions.

17.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please inform the Committee of the efforts made to prevent the use of child soldiers and ensure that children are not used in support roles by the military in Borno State and provide information on any investigations conducted in any such reported incidents. Please also indicate whether any children are held in military detention facilities and provide details in this regard. Please also submit information on the number of children in conflict with the law in juvenile detention facilities and on the use of alternatives to detention for children and the existence of judges specialized in juvenile justice.

18. Please provide relevant information on treatment in psychiatric settings in the State party. Please inform the Committee ofmeasures taken to prevent and investigate allegations of arbitrary detentions, assaults against and chaining of persons with disabilities in public institutions and private settings, including religious and traditional healing centres. Additionally, please comment on reports alleging ill-treatment inflicted on drug users, particularly by members of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and in drug rehabilitation facilities.

Articles 12 and 13

19. In the light of the Committee’s previous recommendations and the letter from the Committee’s Rapporteur for follow-up to concluding observations dated 27 April 2023, please provide updated, disaggregated information on the number of complaints, investigations, prosecutions and convictions relating to acts of torture or ill-treatment in the period under review, along with information on the sentences handed down in cases where alleged perpetrators were found to be guilty. Additionally, please provide:

(a)Updated and disaggregated data on the outcome of all cases concerning 60 police officers identified by the Panel on the Reform of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force 2018–2019 and referred to the State Attorneys General for further investigation and prosecution or to the Inspector General of Police for disciplinary action;

(b)Disaggregated data on investigations and prosecutions, and their outcome, including full redress provided to victims, conducted by the Independent Judicial Commissions of Inquiry constituted in the Federal Capital Territory and 28 States of the Federation, with respect to allegations of the excessive use of force, including lethal force by shooting, during arrests or in policing demonstrations, notably during the #EndSARS protests. Please indicate whether the findings of these judicial panels of inquiry have been made public already;

(c)Information on specific measures put in place to ensure the effective operation of the above-mentioned judicial commissions or boards of inquiry, and the guarantee that there is no institutional or hierarchical relationship between investigators for these bodies and the suspected perpetrators of such acts, as previously recommended by the Committee;

(d)Information on the number of investigations opened and prosecutions carried out with respect to the allegations of excessive use of force, resulting in deaths, arbitrary detention and trumped-up charges of persons participating in the #EndBadGovernance protests;

(e)Information on the number of investigations opened, and prosecutions carried out with respect to reported instances of assault, arrest and excessive use of force during the forced evictions and demolitions across the waterfront communities in Lagos, including the reported deployment of tear gas, by security personnel.

20.Please explain the measures taken to ensure that the Complaint Response Unit of the Nigerian Police, established in accordance with article 131 of the Police Act, 2020, and competent to receive and investigate complaints of torture, ill-treatment or any other misconduct committed by police officers, comply with the requirement for an independent mechanism and that there is no institutional or hierarchical relationship between the investigators of the mechanism and the alleged perpetrators of such acts.

21.Please indicate whether, during the reporting period, there were any cases in which medical professionals dealing with persons deprived of their liberty submitted a copy of the results of the medical examination documenting signs and allegations of torture or ill‑treatment of an arrested or detained person to the competent authorities for further investigation. Please provide information on the number of cases investigated concerning allegations of torture and ill‑treatment in which expert reports were drawn up in accordance with the methodology of the Istanbul Protocol in its revised version.

Article 14

22.In the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide updated information on the number of claims for compensation for pecuniary and non‑pecuniary damage made in relation to allegations of torture, the number of requests granted and the amounts ordered and actually provided in each case. Please also provide information on any ongoing reparation programmes, including those providing specialized treatment for trauma and other forms of rehabilitation, for victims of torture or ill-treatment and on the material, human and budgetary resources allocated for their effective functioning.

Article 15

23.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please indicate what specific measures have been adopted by the State Party to ensure that confessions, statements and other evidence obtained through torture or ill-treatment are not admitted as evidence in practice and that the existing legal safeguards against their admission are applied in practice by the national authorities, including through the recording of confessions and questions posed by prosecutors and judges to all defendants in criminal cases as to whether they had been tortured or ill-treated. Please provide information on the number of cases during the reporting period in which the courts have found evidence to be inadmissible on the basis that it was obtained through torture or ill-treatment, in accordance with the Anti-Torture Act, the Evidence Act and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, and provide examples of those cases.

Article 16

24.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations and the letter dated 27 April 2023 from the Committee’s Rapporteur for follow-up to concluding observations, please provide information on the progress made in adopting national guidelines on safe termination of pregnancies for legal indications. Please specify whether the State Party intends to undertake national legal reforms to broaden the circumstances in which abortion is permitted, in particular where carrying a pregnancy to term would cause the pregnant woman or girl substantial pain or suffering, most notably where the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or where the pregnancy is not viable. In addition, please indicate whether any awareness-raising campaigns to overcome the religious and cultural sentiments, mentioned by the State Party in its follow-up report, have been carried out. Please provide details on any further measures adopted to ensure access to comprehensive and affordable sexual and reproductive health services at national level. Please provide information on any prosecution for abortion resulting from rape or other circumstances that cause the woman considerable suffering that there may have been.

25.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide information on specific steps taken during the reporting period to ensure the incorporation of the Child Rights Act, 2003, into the domestic legislation of all states across the entire territory. In particular, please indicate the steps undertaken to harmonize the interpretation of section 11 — which prohibits torture and ill-treatment — with international standards by expressly prohibiting corporal punishment of children in private settings, such as the home and other forms of alternative care. Please clarify whether corporal punishment can be still imposed on persons under the age of 18 as a sentence for a crime under federal and states’ legislation, including under sharia. Please indicate whether any campaign has been conducted for professionals and the general public in order to raise awareness about the harmful effects of corporal punishment and promote positive, non-violent disciplinary methods in education and in bringing up and caring for children.

26.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please explain the steps taken to prohibit the death penalty for all persons under the age of 18, in compliance with federal law, including in the states that operate under sharia law. Moreover, please explain whether any measures have been taken torevoke the use of the death penalty in relation to crimes falling short of the “most serious crimes” threshold, including for allegations of blasphemy, apostasy and homosexual activity, and to prevent violence against those individuals. In addition, please provide information on the number of prisoners on death row, disaggregated by, among others, gender, age, racial or ethnic origin, offence for which they are convicted, date of conviction and state of appeal proceedings, if any, and penitentiary facility where they serve the sentence. Please indicate whether death sentences continue to be imposed by courts, whether any have been commuted to prison terms sentences, in accordance with the provisions set out in the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, and, if so, how many. Please indicate whether the State party envisages declaring an official, nationwide moratorium on the death penalty for all crimes in law, covering the whole territory, and ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

27. Please comment on the numerous allegations of arrests and arbitrary detention of journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders in relation to their legitimate professional activities. Please indicate the measures taken or envisaged to ensure the effective protection of such individuals and groups to enable them to carry out their work. Please provide statistical data for the reporting period on the number of related complaints, the outcomes of any investigations opened following those complaints and the sentences and penalties handed down.

28.Please comment on reports indicating the use of Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013, by the police to reportedly legitimize the arbitrary arrest and detention, torture of and other physical and sexual violence against persons based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Please indicate whether any measures are foreseen to decriminalize consensual same-sex conduct and same-sex marriages.

Other issues

29.Please provide updated information on the measures taken by the State Party to respond to threats of terrorism. Please describe whether those measures have affected human rights safeguards in law and in practice and, if so, how they have affected them. Please also describe how the State Party has ensured that counter-terrorism measures, including the provisions relating to the definition of terrorism and fundamental legal safeguards contained in the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act of 2022, are compatible with all its obligations under international human rights law, especially the Convention. Furthermore, please indicate what training is given to law enforcement officers in this area; the number of persons who have been convicted under legislation adopted to combat terrorism; the legal remedies and safeguards available in law and in practice to persons subjected to counter-terrorism measures; and whether there have been complaints of the non-observance of national and international standards in applying measures to combat terrorism and, if so, what the outcomes were.

General information on other measures and developments relating to the implementation of the Convention in the State Party

30. Please provide detailed information on any other relevant legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures taken since the consideration of the State Party’s previous periodic report to implement the provisions of the Convention or the Committee’s recommendations. Such measures may include institutional developments, plans or programmes. Please indicate the resources allocated and provide statistical data. Please also provide any other information that the State Party considers relevant.