Nigeria - Committee Against Torture (LOIPR) - Death Penalty - August 2025
Country: Nigeria
Partners: World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Issues: Death Penalty
Mechanism: UN Committee Against Torture
Report Type: List of Issues Prior to Reporting
This report addresses the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s compliance with its obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in the context of Nigeria’s laws, policies, and customs concerning the death penalty. This report suggests questions that the Committee against Torture should consider posing to the Government of Nigeria in its List of Issues Prior to Reporting, particularly with respect to its administration of the death penalty.
Nigeria ratified the Convention on June 28, 2001. The State party was required to submit its initial report under article 19 (1) of the Convention by June 28, 2002. Each year thereafter, Nigeria was included in the list of States parties with overdue reports in the annual report, which the Committee submits to the States parties and the General Assembly. Nigeria’s initial report is now more than 23 years overdue.
Nigeria is a party to the Convention but has not ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. Nigeria has not abolished the death penalty but has established a de facto moratorium on executions, with no known judicial executions since 23 December 2016. Nonetheless, Nigerian courts continue to sentence people to death and Nigerian laws do not limit the application of the death penalty to the “most serious” crimes within the meaning of Article 6(2) of the ICCPR. For example, consensual same-sex conduct can be a capital crime. Several crimes carry mandatory death sentences, including witchcraft and “juju.” In May 2024, the Nigerian Senate proposed a bill to add drug trafficking to the list of capital crimes, but in November the Senate dropped the proposed expansion of the death penalty, responding to extensive engagement on the issue by the Nigerian abolitionist movement.
The use of the death penalty in Nigeria’s criminal justice system contravenes the Convention and violates the rights of people in several ways. First, despite the de facto moratorium on executions, courts still sentence people to death. Second, Nigerian law does not limit the death penalty to the most serious crimes, and in some cases, the death penalty is mandatory. Third, some execution methods for capital crimes in Nigeria violate the rights of individuals to be free from torture and ill-treatment. Fourth, individuals younger than 18 may be sentenced to death in Nigeria. Fifth, death penalty practices are unfair and discriminatory, having a disproportionate impact on Nigerians of lower socio-economic status who lack adequate access to legal representation, and there are fair trial and due process concerns due to corruption. Sixth, people on death row face poor detention conditions, with inadequate access to medical care, food, and water in violation of their rights to life, health, and security of the person. Seventh, discrimination against women in Nigeria’s criminal justice system, including in capital cases, violates women’s rights to equality and non-discrimination and equal recognition before the law. Eighth, human rights defenders in the abolitionist movement are subject to discrimination, and authorities have failed to create a safe and enabling environment for their work.
