HUMAN DIGNITY IN NIGERIAN LAW
Human dignity can be explained to mean no act should be done to any human on the surface of the earth,which has the tendency to dehumanize or derogate or reduce the worth attached to the human person. Such inhuman acts include torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or human trafficking, slavery, compulsory labour and so on.
Torture: it can be in various forms such as physical, emotional, everyone is guaranteed his/her constitutional rights and liberty.This right is enshrined in sec 34 (1) of the 1999 constitution (as Amended) which states,”every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person,and accordingly (a) No person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading”.
Again, thevAdministration Criminals Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 sheds more light to the provisions of the constitution; Section 8(1) , the law specifies, “A suspect shall be accorded humane treatment,having regard to his right to the dignity of his person;and (b) not be subjected to any form of torture,cruel, inhuman or degrading ttreatment”.
In the first schedule of the police Act, there is also the following provisions.
“A member of the force who commits any of the following acts or omission shall be guilty of an offence against discipline…
From the duo authorities spelt out, it is clear that torture is unequivocally condemned. Let me further amplified that “anti-torture act 2017 also frown at torture, it’s even criminalized torture.
- Beating or flogging of criminal suspects ,long detention,threat, harassment. it is wrong, illegal for any security operative to torture suspect under any guise and for any reason whatsoever.
The United Nations Charter on Human Rights, recognizes this. State security agents tied the suspect that is yet to be tried to the ceiling fan suspended the body while the fan rotated, thereby make the suspect dizzy, using electrical shock. It’s a method when the suspect is flogged with live and exposed electric wires strapped around the suspect,generating electric shock on the suspect.
Another means of torture is where the officer intentionally detains a suspect yet to be pronounced guilty in the same cell with hardened criminals who can subject the suspect to satanic treatment.
At the commencement of this piece,l stated that torture doesn’t have to be physical alone. It could be emotional or psychological.Most of the government policies subject the citizens to psychological torture which affect mental health. The disbanded SARS adopted a method where a suspected armed robber is brought into the room with the intention of subjecting a suspect to emotional torture. A suspect would be queried
lf he is truly an armed robber or not,lf the response is no, the said suspect A is shot dead on the spot, the security operative will then turned to suspect B lf he is an armed robber.obviously he will choose to lie against himself rather to die.
WHAT IS YOUR RIGHT, IF YOU ARE TORTURED.
You are to seek medical attention promptly with the understanding that a police report is unnecessary before medical service is provided. Secondly, you have the right to complain to the higher authority under the guise of your legal practitioner.
Most times,these illegal acts are carried out by junior officers who simply filed a petition before the appropriate authority with an ultimatum.
Comrade Ejidiran is a public affairs analyst