Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict in Nigeria: International Law and Domestic Law at the Crossroads

Abstract

This study examines sexual violence in armed conflict, using the Boko-Haram insurgency as a case study. It explores the extent of protection accorded to victims of the conflict and the accountability of perpetrators under Nigerian law. It examines the State’s complicity in consistently allowing civilians to be targets of sexual violence while members of the Boko-Haram armed group who perpetrated such offenses continue to enjoy almost complete immunity. This study also investigates the legal hurdles hampering bringing perpetrators of sexual violence in armed conflict to justice and has provided solutions to the absence of legal protection for victims of sexual violence in armed conflict and the dearth of accountability for its perpetrators. It argues that the current legislation in place in Nigeria to combat sexual violence is grossly inadequate. not just for peacetime but in armed conflict, and the non-domestication of international treaties, particularly the Four Geneva Conventions and its Additional Protocols, has contributed to the near-complete impunity of perpetrators of sexual violence in armed conflict.