Stakeholders have called for a review of laws and criminal justice provisions that could be used to restrict freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), freedom of expression and other fundamental rights guaranteed under the Nigerian Constitution.

The stakeholders also raised concerns about the implications of laws governing public disturbance and other offences where the language of the provisions could be subject to broad interpretation.

According to them, the existence of legitimate concerns about incitement, violence or threats to public safety should not result in restrictions on peaceful religious expression or the exercise of freedom of belief.

They made the call at a stakeholders’ engagement on religious freedom and criminal justice reform organised by Hope Behind Bars Africa (HBBA), in Abuja.

The meeting examined the relationship between the protection of religious liberty, freedom of expression and the enforcement of criminal laws.

They expressed concern that vague or broadly worded provisions relating to public disturbance, blasphemy, hate speech and incitement could, if applied arbitrarily, undermine citizens’ fundamental rights.

Speaking, executive director of HBBA, Funke Adeoye, said criminal justice reforms were necessary to ensure that the country’s legal framework adequately protected freedom of religion or belief while allowing the state to respond appropriately to genuine threats to public order and the rights of others.

Adeoye stressed the importance of ensuring that criminal laws were not applied selectively or used as instruments for suppressing legitimate religious expression.

She said the protection of fundamental rights should remain central to the administration of criminal justice, particularly in a religiously diverse country such as Nigeria.

Human rights lawyer, Tsema Ede, said the protection of freedom of religion or belief required a legal framework that clearly distinguished between peaceful religious expression and conduct that constituted a genuine threat to public safety.

She said authorities to prevent the arbitrary use of what she described as vague laws, including public disturbance and blasphemy-related provisions, to suppress minority expression or dissent.

Ede advocated neutral mechanisms for resolving tensions between religious communities, stronger institutional safeguards against discrimination and balanced legislative interventions on religious freedom.

“There is an urgent need for a healthy and balanced legislative intervention in the area of religious freedom in Nigeria,” she said.

She urged policymakers, civil society organisations and justice-sector actors to move from rhetoric to systemic institutional reforms, arguing that security and national unity required adherence to the rule of law and equal protection.

“True security and national unity cannot be bombed or legislated into existence; they are cultivated through strict adherence to the rule of law and equal protection,” Ede said.

Executive Director of Rivers in the Desert Initiative, Alex James, called for a deeper examination of the relationship between Sharia law, freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression.

James said stakeholders should examine how matters traditionally governed by family or civil law could become criminal matters, noting that such developments had implications for fundamental rights.

“We are not supposed to penalise thoughts or expression. These are things that cause this contradiction within the law,” he said.

He also called for sustained efforts to address processes through which individuals could be indoctrinated into violent or harmful beliefs.

Executive Director of the Kukah Centre, Rev. Fr. Barkindo Atta, urged stakeholders to establish clear laws governing hate speech and incitement and ensure their equal application regardless of religion, ethnicity, social status or political affiliation.

“Hate speech and incitement should be governed by agreed laws. It should not matter who you are in the society; if you violate these laws, you should face the consequences so that we are not profiled,” Atta said.

HBBA board member, Stanley Ibe, called for effective implementation of laws protecting freedom of religion or belief without favour or partiality.