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Communique issued at the close of the E-Rights project second situation room to strenghten digital rights in Nigeria - On Thursday, 11 september 2025.

The e-RIGHTS project partners, led by Avocats Sans Frontières France (Lawyers Without Borders France), convened a high-level Situation Room Dialogue in Abuja. The forum brought together key civil society actors, government and regulatory agencies, and human rights defenders to strengthen the protection and promotion of digital rights in Nigeria. The initiative is part of the ongoing e-RIGHTS project, funded by the European Union.
The dialogue served as a platform for stakeholders to share insights, address pressing challenges, and propose concrete solutions to the growing threats to digital rights in Nigeria. Discussions highlighted the fragmentation of laws, a deficit of public trust in state institutions, and the significant gap between legal frameworks and their practical implementation. 
After extensive deliberations, participants unanimously adopted the following recommendations as a roadmap for advancing digital rights in Nigeria:
1. Recommendations for Law Enforcement and the Judiciary
  1. Stop Parading Suspects Online: As a matter of urgency, the Nigerian Police should stop publishing pictures and videos of suspects online until they are proven guilty by a court of law, in line with the constitutional right to the presumption of innocence.
  2. Establish Online and Hybrid Courts: The creation of online or hybrid courts specifically for digital rights and abuse cases should be prioritized to provide timely and accessible justice.
  3. Enhance Police Capacity: Training programs should be developed for junior officers of the Nigeria Police on digital rights protection and case handling. Additionally, the Nigeria Police Cybercrime Unit should establish a feedback mechanism for reported cases of digital rights abuse to ensure a responsive system.
  4. Strengthen the Judiciary: Judges should be trained on digital rights issues, and the judiciary should be strengthened to handle digital rights cases effectively.
  5. Increase Funding and Accountability: Members of the Situation Room and other stakeholders should advocate for increased funding for the Nigeria Police, while also holding them accountable for the effective use of resources.
 
2. Recommendations for Legal and Policy Reform
  1. Enact a Comprehensive Digital Rights Law: The National Assembly should pass a single, all-encompassing law that specifically protects various aspects of digital rights, including children's rights online, freedom of expression, and internet access. This is essential to address the current fragmentation of laws where no single agency is responsible for a complete aspect of digital rights.
  2. Develop a National Guideline on Child Protection: A comprehensive national guideline on online child protection should be developed to address the unique vulnerabilities of children in the digital space.
  3. Establish a National Action Plan for Digital Rights: A dedicated platform should be created to bring together all relevant government agencies to define their specific roles and responsibilities in addressing digital rights issues. This will create a clear, publicly accessible "map" that citizens can use to identify which agency to approach for a particular issue.
  4. Strengthen E-Contract Laws: Create a legal framework that prohibits or invalidates e-contracts and terms of service that are deliberately designed to be excessively long, unintelligible, or that unfairly limit the rights of citizens.
  5. Increase Legislative Awareness: More training and sensitization should be provided to legislators on digital rights issues to equip them with the knowledge needed to create effective and rights-respecting laws.
  6. Encourage Home-Grown Platforms: The Situation Room should push for the development of home-grown social media platforms to enhance accountability and oversight.
3. Recommendations for Awareness, Education, and Collaboration
  1. Promote Digital Literacy from an Early Age: The government should introduce STEM courses at the early stages of education by embedding them in primary school curricula, ensuring that children acquire foundational digital knowledge from an early age.
  2. Intensify Public Awareness Campaigns: More awareness campaigns and digital literacy programs for children should be promoted. The media, particularly radio, should be more robustly deployed to create awareness among citizens on digital rights.
  3. Simplify and Translate Legal Language: MDAs should simplify and translate complex legal language in digital rights laws into terms that citizens can easily understand, if possible, into local languages.
  4. Harmonize Reporting Platforms: Existing platforms for reporting and documenting digital rights abuses should be made more visible, harmonized, and accessible to the public.
  5. Strengthen Collaboration: Greater collaboration is required among government agencies, civil society organizations (CSOs), and other stakeholders working in the digital rights space. Civil society organizations should develop a clear and realistic roadmap to ensure the full realization of digital rights laws in Nigeria.
  6. Hold Social Media Platforms Accountable: Citizens and digital rights advocates should intensify efforts to hold social media platforms accountable, particularly regarding the “right to be forgotten” for false or damaging information
  7. Improve Accessibility of Services: Government agencies should not charge a fee for citizens to access or understand how to report a complaint, as the cost of such services is a barrier to awareness and access for ordinary Nigerians.
 
Conclusion
The e-RIGHTS project is committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure these recommendations are translated into action. The dialogue underscored that a multi-pronged approach involving legislative reform, judicial strengthening, and extensive public awareness is essential to build a safe, secure, and rights-respecting digital environment for all Nigerians.
Participating entities at the e-RIGHTS Situation Room on Digital Rights included representatives of:
- Avocats Sans Frontières France
- Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD)
- Spaces For Change
- Nigeria Police Force (NPF) – National Cyber Crime Centre (NCCC)
- National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
- Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)
- Federal Ministry of Justice (FMOJ)
- National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)
- National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)
- National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS)
- Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology
- Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC)
- Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ)
- Human Rights Journalists Network (HRJN) Nigeria
- Paradigm Initiative
- TechHer Nigeria
- University of Lagos
- Imo State University
- Ado Bayero University, Kano.
- Arise News
- TVC News
- Voice of Nigeria
- Vanguard Newspaper
- The Guardian Newspaper

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