The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has called for stronger institutional coordination, improved access to healthcare and justice, and better protection of the rights of vulnerable Nigerians.
The call was made on Thursday in Abuja at the National Technical and Institutional Validation Meeting on the Guidelines for the Effective Implementation of Selected Laws Applicable to Vulnerable Persons in Nigeria, with a focus on gender, justice, human rights and health.
Delivering the opening remarks on behalf of the UNDP Resident Representative in Nigeria, Onyinye Ndubuisi said the major challenge was not the absence of laws protecting vulnerable persons but the failure to ensure their effective implementation.
“The fundamental question before us is not simply whether Nigeria has adequate laws to protect vulnerable persons, but whether our institutions are sufficiently equipped, coordinated and accountable to ensure that those laws translate into protection, justice and improved lives,” she said.
Ndubuisi noted that women and girls, children, persons with disabilities, key and vulnerable populations, and people in detention continued to face institutional and systemic barriers when seeking justice, protection and essential services.
She explained that the guidelines would provide practical direction for translating existing legal and policy commitments into coordinated institutional procedures and accessible, rights based services.
She also highlighted the expansion of the High Level Observatory on Gender, Justice, Human Rights and Health across 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory, covering 20 jurisdictions.
According to her, the Observatory would generate institutional evidence, identify implementation gaps, inform policy decisions and strengthen oversight and accountability across relevant sectors.
“What we do not adequately document, we cannot effectively address; what we do not monitor, we cannot hold institutions accountable for,” she said.
Ndubuisi stressed that government ownership would be central to the adoption and implementation of the guidelines, noting that federal and state ministries, justice and health institutions, and human rights bodies must take responsibility for putting them into practice.
Also speaking, Chief State Counsel in charge of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Habiba Hamza, said the guidelines were still undergoing validation ahead of their official launch and implementation.
She explained that the initiative was designed to make the application of existing laws easier, particularly those relating to the rights and health of vulnerable persons.
“The most important part is that the work is ongoing, and the purpose of this is to help make the application of all the already existing laws easier,” Hamza said.
She added that provisions contained in different laws were being brought together under one framework to guide institutions in protecting detainees, children in conflict with the law, women and other vulnerable groups.
The Executive Director and Founder of the Public Awareness on Rights and Rehabilitation of Vulnerable Persons Initiative (PAR-RVP), Ogechi Ogu, identified inadequate funding, fragmented laws and poor coordination among institutions as major obstacles to protecting vulnerable persons.
Ogu said the existence of laws alone was insufficient without the resources and institutional collaboration required to implement them effectively.
“We can’t limit ourselves to making laws. We make laws. Implementation of laws requires funding, resourcing, and there should be connectivity between laws,” she said.
She identified the Anti Torture Act 2017, the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015 and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act as key legal instruments that provide protections for vulnerable persons.
According to her, bringing the relevant provisions of these laws together would help justice and healthcare sector practitioners deliver more coordinated and comprehensive protection.
Ogu stressed that detention should not deprive individuals of their fundamental human rights, including access to medical treatment and humane conditions.
“When an offence is committed and it requires taking away the freedom, the liberty to move around, it does not mean that other human rights have equally been taken away,” she said.
She added that individuals in custody should not be denied medical treatment or exposed to conditions that could worsen their health.
The meeting brought together government representatives, development partners, technical experts and civil society organisations to review and validate the guidelines aimed at strengthening the implementation of laws protecting vulnerable persons in Nigeria.
