A newly released study has revealed that women on death row in Nigeria face deep-rooted gender discrimination, with the majority suffering from poverty, limited education, and systemic injustice throughout the legal process.
The research, presented on Monday at a stakeholder validation meeting in Abuja, was conducted by Hope Behind Bars Africa in collaboration with the National Human Rights Commission, and supported by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the French Development Agency.
According to the report, 47 per cent of female death row inmates are between the ages of 18 and 35, while more than one-third had no formal education, and only 10 per cent completed tertiary education.
Seventy per cent of the women surveyed are mothers, many of whom left behind children in unstable or fragmented care arrangements, deepening the inter-generational impact of incarceration.
Most of the women previously worked in informal, low-income sectors such as trading and farming, highlighting the link between economic vulnerability and their entry into the criminal justice system.
According to the study, more than a third of the women had experienced gender-based violence, including domestic abuse, child marriage, or coercion by partners, factors that were often directly connected to the crimes for which they were convicted.
The study also found that 75 per cent of the women were unaware of the laws under which they were charged, 85 per cent believed the law was unfair to women, and over half considered their trials to be non-transparent.
The children of these inmates reportedly faced disrupted education, psychological trauma, and unstable living conditions due to the absence of their mothers.
Despite facing death sentences, over 80 per cent of the women believed in rehabilitation and preferred restorative justice approaches such as vocational training or imprisonment over capital punishment.
Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Dr Tony Ojukwu, SAN, called for urgent reforms and reiterated the Commission’s position against the death penalty.
Ojukwu described the death penalty as ineffective in deterring crime and incompatible with a rights-based justice system, stressing the need for restorative justice rooted in human dignity.
MEANWHILE, Male Feminists Network (MFN) has said over 35 per cent of Nigerian women have experienced physical violence, while many more suffer emotional, sexual, and economic abuses.
Project Director of MFN, Dr Otive Igbuzor, disclosed this yesterday at the public unveiling and launch of an online course on male feminism and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention in Abuja.
Lamenting the trend, Igbuzor stressed that the fight against GBV should not be seen as women’s struggle alone but as a collective human cause aimed at building a Nigeria where everyone, man, woman, or child, could live free from fear and discrimination.
He said the launch of the online course was intended to ignite a new wave of enlightenment across homes, institutions, and communities, urging men to log on to mfn.centrelsd.org to access information and inspiration to act, lead, and champion equality in their respective spaces.
