Nigeria – non-judicial

By Daniel Morris | 30. July 2024

he Nigeria NAP provides a list of existing constitutional obligations, domestic legislation, internation obligations, and police and administrative steps. This breakdown only looks at the list of challenges and the implementation of the 3 pillars of the UNGPs.

8.6 CHALLENGES
…
“l. Lack of effective, transparent, sustainable grievance mechanisms for businesses to address conflicts with communities including documenting and reporting of activities of settlement.” (p.155)

PILLAR 1 – STATE DUTY TO PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS
ACTIONABLE ITEMS
A. ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL WORKING GROUP ON BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS (NWGBHR)
“The Working Group will have the following responsibilities, among others;
…
vi. Periodically assess and support the establishment of grievance mechanisms in companies.”

M. CAPACITY BUILDING
“The following capacity building needs have been identified:
…
c. Regulatory agencies should be strengthened to enable them monitor and evaluate the implementation of NAPBHR and also provide remedies when violations occur” (p.160)

PILLAR 3 – ACCES TO REMEDY
“Access to remedy for communities or persons who are victims of adverse impact of business operations can be through the following framework;
i. State-Based Judicial Mechanism
ii. State-Based Non-Judicial Mechanis [sic]
iii. Non-State-Based Grievance

Access to remedy includes legal, administrative, judicial and non-judical [sic] remedy.

B. STATE-BASED NON-JUDICIAL MECHANISM
These consist of State Agencies which though non judicial, exercise statutory powers and regulatory functions pertaining to Business and Human Rights. They have the potential of addressing the greatest number of human rights violations by businesses because they exercise statutory powers and regulatory functions.
They include the following:
i. National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
ii. Public Complaints Commission (PCC)
iii. National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA)
iv. Consumer Protection Council (CPC)
v. Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)
vi. National Administration of Food and Drug Control (NAFDAC)
vii. National Bio-Safety Management Agency
viii. National Environmental Standard and Regulatory Enforcement Agency (NESREA)
ix. Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON)
x. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
xi. Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)
xii. Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
xiii. Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR)

In order to improve the effectiveness of State Based non-judicial mechanism, the following plan of action will be implemented:

  1. Capacity-building for these agencies to enable them appreciate the human rights component of their mandate and enhance their ability to offer remedy pursuant to their statutory functions
  2. Strengthening of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) through capacity building and close partnership to enable the organization to work more effectively with communities, state and businesses to resolve conflicts efficiently.
  3. Strengthening of the National Human Rights Commission to discharge its quasi-judicial responsibilities in addressing human rights violations by businesses; and rendering of effective remedy.
  4. Convening of periodic meeting of regulatory bodies whose functions are relevant.
  5. Mapping of these bodies to clearly identify them and properly delineate their mandates so that their operations may be streamlined for speed and efficiency in relation to business and human rights related remedy.
  6. Scale up of Community Sensitization on the functions of various agencies.
  7. Collation of reports and feedback on progress made by State Based non- judicial mechanism.” (p.164-165)
    C. NON-STATE BASED GRIEVANCE MECHANISM
    “The law cannot take care of all the complexities of the relationship between the community, the state and corporations. This therefore necessitates the adoption of some non-state-based grievance mechanism to fill the gap. These include all the centres and agencies established by companies, NGOs, Media, CSOs, Labour Unions, Faith-Based Orgsanisations, communities and other sundry agencies. Some of them are formal and some are informal in their operations. Some specialize in advisory services and the provision of information, while others are mainly concerned with referral and monitoring.” (p.165)