Human Rights of Women
Source: Vanguard
With the recent upsurge in terrorism in Nigeria, Nigerian airport authorities have adopted counter-terrorism and security measures at airports in order to safeguard the lives and property of passengers and airport personnel.
Metallic frisk of passengers just before boarding is now common place. While taking measures to secure lives and property is in itself salutary, the intrusive, gender insensitive and overzealous manner in which some of these measures have been implemented blatantly disregards basic fundamental rights of women.
At the Lagos airport, measures have not been taken to ensure that passengers are not searched by a person of the opposite sex and women for the most part have been victims of this procedural lapse since female passengers are more often than not, searched by male security agents . This is more prominent with late evening flights when excuses are made that the female agents have closed for the day,
As a frequent traveller through the Lagos and Abuja airports, attempts have been made on a number of occasions (especially from the Air Nigeria Lagos boarding point), to subject me a metallic frisk by men, to which I persistently and vehemently refused.
A frisk search of a woman by a man in public is embarrassing and undignified as it results in a forced interpersonal contact and is a blatant violation of their right to privacy and personal dignity. The process itself is deeply unsettling, humiliating and contravenes the values of self-worth and modesty that are sacred to women.
As a human rights activist, I understand that I have a right not to be subjected to this humiliating procedure, and I have consistently refused to be searched by male security agents at the Lagos airport and after a number of dramatic encounters.
Since I have become notoriously known to the Air Nigeria Lagos agents am usually allowed a thoroughfare without being searched by a male agent. However, most women are largely unaware that they have a right to object to being searched by a person of the opposite sex and hundreds of female passengers, are exposed to such degrading treatment on a daily basis.
This scenario is also replicated Churches, events centers, offices and other public places.
While a body frisk can be justified on security grounds and as a concerned citizen of this country; I desire safety for all passengers as much as any other person but it is inadmissible for dignity to be sacrificed at the altar of safety.
Safety measures must take into account the respect of basic fundamental rights, not least of which is the respect of the dignity inherent in all human beings. Searches must be conducted in a professional and dignified manner, mindful of the Constitution and the international human rights obligations that the Nigerian Government has freely undertaken to respect and uphold.
Article 5 African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (African Charter), which Nigeria has ratified and incorporated into our national legislation through the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement Act) 1999 states that ''every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being and to the recognition of his legal status".
The article absolutely prohibits all forms of degradation of man including any form of degrading treatment. Article 2 (c) of the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa which Nigeria has also ratified, enjoins State Parties to the protocol to "integrate a gender perspective in their policy decisions, legislation, development plans, programs and activities and in all other spheres of life", and Article 3(3) of the same Protocol requires States Parties among other things, to ''adopt and implement measures to prohibit any exploitation and degradation of women"
The gender insensitive search procedure adopted by the Nigerian airport authorities and elsewhere is in stark contradiction to the above provisions. The Federal Republic of Nigeria is equally responsible for the violation of non-state actors there is therefore an urgent need to take corrective measures to provide and ensure a gender sensitive system that integrate into its security safeguards the respect of basic rights of all particularly the dignity of the woman.
As a commissioner and Chairperson of the African Union Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights charged with monitoring compliance by States Parties with the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and its protocol on the rights of women in Africa, cited above, it is incumbent on me to bring to the public domain such practices that are a blatant disregard of the rights of Nigerians as guaranteed by the Constitution and other international instruments which our country has duly undertaken to respect and uphold.