• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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US cites these 5 Nigerian human rights issues as significant in 2019

US cites these 5 Nigerian human rights issues as significant in 2019

The unlawful and arbitrary killings, unlawful infringement on citizens’ privacy rights, and the substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly in 2019 are considered by the US as significant human rights issues.

According to 2019, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria by the US Department of State human right issues which include harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, and violence against and unjustified arrests of journalists were recorded last year.

While acknowledging that the government took some steps to investigate alleged abuses it said all the above were caused “by both government and nonstate actors,” adding that only a few public reports of prosecutions of officials who committed violations, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in the government were recorded.

“Impunity remained widespread at all levels of government. No charges were filed in some of the significant allegations of human rights violations by security forces and cases of police or military extortion or other abuse of power,” the report stated.

Recall that US President Donald Trump on January 31 announced a visa ban for immigrants from Nigeria and five other countries.

Nigeria must improve on its data intelligence to ease the investigation of its citizens wishing to migrate to the US, Mary-Beth Leonard, the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, said in the capital Abuja adding it must meet the expected standard of information-sharing, including on the issues of terrorism and global crimes.

“We look forward to Nigeria in a very short while being able to meet those information-sharing goals so that the decision can be reviewed,” the envoy said.

From the seven sections of the US human rights report for Nigeria, the following five issues were considered significant.