NHRC Urges Lawmakers To Screen Bills For Human Rights Risks
By Sherif Salau
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has called on Nigerian lawmakers to build a human-rights check into every stage of lawmaking. At the centre of the appeal is a practical tool known as the Human Rights Impact Assessment.
Executive Secretary Tony Ojukwu, SAN, has told legislators that laws passed without careful scrutiny can quietly erode fundamental freedoms and weaken public confidence in democratic institutions. The true measure of democracy, he argued, is not the number of laws produced but whether those laws protect dignity, remain inclusive and uphold human rights standards.
The Commission is particularly concerned about provisions that may affect vulnerable groups. Women, children, older people, internally displaced persons and persons with disabilities often carry the heaviest unintended consequences of poorly considered legislation. An impact assessment, Ojukwu explained, would allow lawmakers to spot such risks early and adjust bills before they become law.
The process should cover the full legislative cycle—from drafting and committee work through public hearings, floor debate and post-enactment review. Public hearings, the Commission insists, must move beyond formality and become genuine spaces for citizens, experts, civil-society organisations and affected communities to shape the outcome.
Ojukwu described the assessment as a practical decision-making aid rather than an added bureaucratic burden. Properly applied, it would strengthen the quality, legitimacy and durability of legislation. The final test of any law, he said, should be straightforward: Does it improve or diminish the rights and dignity of the people it is meant to serve?
The call comes against a backdrop of high volumes of human-rights complaints received by the Commission. By embedding rights analysis into the legislative process itself, the NHRC hopes to reduce the chance that new laws will create fresh problems for those least able to protect themselves.
Whether federal and state assemblies will adopt the recommendation as standard practice remains an open question. For now, the message is clear: responsible lawmaking requires deliberate attention to the people most likely to be harmed when rights are overlooked.
