THE JUDICIAL ATTITUDE TO THE PROTECTION AND ENFORCEMENT OF WOMEN'S RIGHT IN NIGERIA: AN APPRAISAL

THE JUDICIAL ATTITUDE TO THE PROTECTION AND ENFORCEMENT OF WOMEN'S RIGHT IN NIGERIA: AN APPRAISAL

ABSTRACT

Human rights are rights that have come to be guaranteed over time, to all men and women, irrespective of race or creed. These rights extend to even the unborn, in certain circumstances. However, in many societies, women are subject to discriminatory tendencies in the form of laws, policies and practices that derogate from their human rights, simply became of their gender. Many international instruments have been put in place to stem these negative tendencies, especially through the works of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Labour Organization (I.L.O) In Nigeria, for instance, women tend to suffer inequalities in the social, political , economic and cultural fields. This is notwithstanding the fact that there are formal provisions on the statute books that guarantees equality to all before the law. As the ‘grundnorm,’ all the Constitution made for Nigeria with their fundamental rights provisions envisage equality of all citizens, whether male or female. The Thesis finds that the envisaged equality is at best formal and not actual, even though the country is a party to international conventions and instruments that provide for equal enjoyment of human rights by both genders. Some laws, cultural practices and traditions have been fingered in restricting and derogating from the enjoyment of basic rights by women. This thesis sets out to identify derogations from women’s rights, its effects and proffer suggestions on how to curtail these gustative tendencies, with particular reference to Nigeria.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND TO STUDY

Women  are  connected to  other  human  beings   through  the  biologically  based  activities  of pregnancy, breast-feeding and heterosexual intercourse¹. However, throughout history, women have had to struggle against direct and indirect barriers to their self-development and their full participation in social, political, economic and cultural activities of different societies.

Discrimination against women starts at birth, in the discriminatory practice of ‘son preference’. A leading Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Nigeria, the Civil Resources Development and Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC)² describes it as: “the practice whereby the male child is given preferential treatment over the female child. The male child gets all the attention, with timehe is the one sent to school, while the girl child remains at home” ³ Some Igbo customary law rules carry the practice further; when a father dies, they purport that it is only the son (s) that can inherit, the daughter(s) are treated as some form of chattel⁴: On the international stage, discrimination against women has been noted and acknowledged. Thus, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in 1948 asserts in its preamble, the “inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights to all members of the

human family”⁵

As such, women human rights have been described both as rights that women have by virtue of being human, and as rights specific to women. It is therefore worth noting that in some circumstances, women suffer human rights abuses in a specific form, related to their being females. ⁶

The assertion of rights presume their existing or probable violation and a desire to remedy or prevent violation⁷. As these rights relate to women, they have given rise to gender studies, women movements and the concept of feminism. According to Peterson and Runyan⁸, no woman is born and not all women embrace the concept of feminism. How one becomes a feminist varies with each individual, but the impetus for developing what has been termed “feminist consciousness” often arises, when a person experiences a contradiction between who that person thinks she is and what her particular society wants her to be. Feminist consciousness may also arise out of a contradiction in the opportunities a particular society professes to offer to an individual and what that individual experiences.⁹

In industrially advanced countries, for example, women are typically told that, under the law, they have equal opportunities to compete for political and economic power. In practice, however, indirect or structural barriers to full political and economic participation reduce most women’s rights and choices. On the other hand, in more traditional societies, especially those that experienced some form of colonial or neo-colonial rule, colonially imposed laws and certain cultural and religious traditions combine to deny equal opportunities to women, even under the law¹⁰. The experience in India for instance, has been lucidly described by Kirti Singh.¹¹ She asserts that while the constitution adopted at (Indian) independence contained articles mandating equality and non-discrimination on the grounds of sex, several laws that clearly violate the proclaimed principles continue to exist, especially in the area of personal laws or family laws¹²

THE JUDICIAL ATTITUDE TO THE PROTECTION AND ENFORCEMENT OF WOMEN'S RIGHT IN NIGERIA: AN APPRAISAL

Chapters: 1 - 5
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Number of Pages: 75

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