Saturday, April 12, 2025 - The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice has ruled that blasphemy provisions under Kano State law violate Nigeria’s international human rights obligations.
The judgment concluded that these laws infringe on the right
to freedom of expression as enshrined in regional and global human rights
treaties to which Nigeria is a signatory.
The case was filed by the Expression Now Human Rights
Initiative (ENHRI), a Nigerian non-governmental organisation, against the
Federal Republic of Nigeria. The NGO argued that blasphemy laws in various
parts of the country, particularly in Kano State, have resulted in arbitrary
arrests, prolonged detention, and even death sentences for individuals accused
of blasphemous speech.
In a panel comprising Judges Ricardo Gonçalves, Sengu
Koroma, and Dupe Atoki, the court ruled that Section 210 of the Kano State
Penal Code was vague and lacked the legal clarity required by international
human rights standards. It further held that Section 382(b) of the Kano State
Sharia Penal Code Law (2000), which prescribes the death penalty for insulting
the Prophet Muhammad, was both excessive and disproportionate, failing to meet
acceptable standards in a democratic society.
The court declared that both legal provisions were
incompatible with Nigeria’s duty to uphold freedom of expression and ordered
the federal government to repeal or amend the laws to comply with Article 9(2)
of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. While acknowledging the
state's interest in preserving public order and respecting religious beliefs,
the court emphasized that the laws failed the tests of legality, necessity, and
proportionality under the African Charter and the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Though the court rejected allegations of state failure to
prevent blasphemy-related mob violence due to insufficient evidence, it
declared the case admissible with regard to the violation of the right to free
expression. It affirmed its jurisdiction, finding the Kano laws inconsistent
with Nigeria’s obligations under international human rights law.
The judgment comes in the wake of high-profile cases like
that of Mubarak Bala, a self-declared atheist and former president of the
Humanist Association of Nigeria, who was arrested in April 2020 following
social media posts critical of Islam. Bala was tried in Kano and sentenced in
2022 to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to an 18-count charge of
blasphemy and incitement. His case attracted global attention and condemnation
from human rights groups concerned about freedom of belief and expression in
Nigeria. After spending four years behind bars, Bala was released in January
2025 following a successful appeal that reduced his sentence.
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