The Trafficking of Women in Nigeria: Is There a Role for Human Rights?

ABSTRACT:Even before the enactment of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration Act in 2003 (the first legal regime in Nigeria to prohibit and punish all forms of human trafficking), and its subsequent amendment in 2015, the number of women and children being trafficked from Nigeria had steadily been on the upswing. Strikingly, although civil society organizations continue to sprout across the length and breadth of the country, many of them dedicated to partnering with the government on its war against the menace posed by trafficking, the situation on the ground remains grimly unchanged. More women wind up being trafficked each year than the previous one, even as the brazenness and callousness of the traffickers assume a new, more intensely ferocious dimension. This is an unwholesome situation, considering that Nigeria is the “trafficking capital” of Africa, and raises several questions, three of which are profoundly critical. Why have strategies adopted to combat women trafficking failed? What can be done to reverse the situation? Is there any specific role for human rights in the process? Responding to these questions is the burden of this article.