Nigeria – Events of 2016: Foreign Policy
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Nigeria took a stand in support of justice for grave crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) during the African Union’s (AU) July summit in Kigali, Rwanda. Nigeria joined Cote d’Ivoire, Tunisia, and Senegal in opposing an AU call for African members of the ICC to withdraw from the court.
Despite domestic intolerance of online criticism of public officials, Nigeria co-sponsored UN Human Rights Council (HRC) Resolution 32/20 on the Promotion, Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet in July.
The country however took retrogressive steps against human rights when it voted alongside five other members—including China, Russia, and Cuba—against HRC 31/32 on protecting human rights defenders addressing economic, social, and cultural rights at the council’s 31st session in March. This follows a previous vote against the first ever UN General Assembly Resolution Recognizing the Role of Human Rights Defenders and the Need for their Protection in November 2015.
A similar vote at the council’s 32nd session in July, against Resolution 32/31 on civil society space, which “urges States to create and maintain, in law and in practice, a safe and enabling environment in which civil society can operate free from hindrance and insecurity,” signals a disturbing pattern of anti-human rights and civil society rhetoric in the current Nigerian administration.
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