Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on April 28th, 2023

[Hulda Fahmi]

The Jubilee Campaign hasn't documented on LGBTQ people, but I would say that it's very similar to what ex-Muslims face. There's a similar taboo around being ex-Muslim. For instance, Mubarak Bala got 24 years in prison.

I would say it's very similar and concerning, especially in the northern states.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Food insecurity and poverty are on the rise in Nigeria. Are they caught in a vicious circle where the violence causes food insecurity and food insecurity makes people willing to do whatever it takes to feed their family? Are they in a vicious circle or is there still a way to address food insecurity in Nigeria?

What do you think, Mrs. Fahmi?

[Hulda Fahmi]

I think the issue is that many people being targeted are farmers, so that means the crops for the next season are going to be lacking. That's one of the issues causing food insecurity. The second is that three million people are internally displaced. They're not harvesting their own food; they're dependent on receiving food. That is also one of the pressure points. It's also difficult for them to have access to food.

The violence is creating problems in receiving food, and more people are dependent on receiving food and are not able to cultivate or produce their own crops.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Are displaced persons more affected by the violence?

As we know, there are many different ethnic groups in Nigeria. In some provinces, there is a power relationship between certain ethnicities. We are currently seeing the displacement of people.

Are people who are forced to migrate more susceptible to being victims of violence?

[Hulda Fahmi]

Yes, definitely. I think it's been seen in all situations that when they're internally displaced, they don't have a home. They're also going into other communities, which can cause a bit of.... A community that's already vulnerable is probably struggling because it doesn't have means and then has to receive all of these IDPs. Sometimes they're in camps, but many times they're just in the communities, so yes, they're vulnerable to violence. This is also where the trafficking, the risk for trafficking and the vulnerability of girls occur. You just highlighted a very important issue.

I think the Stephanos Foundation just released a report that goes through all of the different challenges that IDPs face. It's limited, because it's often civil society that is providing the aid for these individuals. We know that in one state, the local governor was telling IDPs to disperse and not to congregate together, because they want to deny that there are even IDPs in the area.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you. All these questions and answers are extremely important for the analysts who are writing our report. Obviously, it is important to understand why people end up in certain situations.

There was an election recently. What is your assessment of that election?

If memory serves me correctly, barely 27% of registered voters exercised their right to vote. Can we say that this election unfolded democratically? To what extent was what happened in February, during the election, potentially an agent of change, whether positive or negative?

I would like your opinion on that.

[Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu]

Yes, in February 2020, general elections were held in the country. To give you feedback on what the general process is, first, on the part of civil society and the general populace, there was great disenchantment. People believed that the elections were not transparent and were not free and fair. This is because in the months and weeks leading up to the elections, the body in charge of conducting elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had deployed a technological intervention.

They had massive communications campaigns assuring Nigerians and civil society that elections would be transparent because they used BVAS, which would enable electronic identification and registration but also direct transmission of election results from the polling units straight to a server that could be viewed publicly.

This did not happen, as least for the presidential election, and this has created great distrust among every cadre of society, of course, except for those who won.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I was going to ask if the situation was the same for the governors election in mid‑March, but my time is up.

I will leave it to my colleagues to continue.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

The witnesses could keep that in mind for the next responses.

Mr. Angus, you have seven minutes.

Welcome to the committee.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you so much, Chair.

The testimony today has been very concerning, and the situation we are looking at is certainly very concerning.

Ms. Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, I'd like to start with you.

The story of what happened with the kidnapping of 276 girls by Boko Haram shocked the world. I think we would all agree that the protection of children and the protection of girls are the most fundamental obligations of family, community and nation, yet there's this kidnapping, this violence against these girls. It's almost without precedent for us to have learned of it.

I'd like to ask you why you think this kind of targeting of young girls is happening and what kind of trauma support there is for the survivors. What is the situation now, with the Nigerian government's committing to protect the right of girls to education?

[Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu]

The kidnapping of the Chibok girls shocked the world. Unfortunately, many of them are still in captivity today, and other kidnappings have occurred, the majority in schools where girls were being educated.

This has created setbacks for the statistics of girl children who access education, particularly in the north, and this creates other chains of vulnerabilities affecting their future. As a family mentioned, it's going to go generations, because, indeed, it took generations to get a girl child to have some level of education in Nigeria.

The government is not doing enough. It's not doing enough to reassure parents that they can send their girls to school, and it's not doing enough to protect the children who are in school or those who are travelling to school.

This is one key area where the government has failed the people. The government has failed the children, particularly girls. It should be a priority for the nation, for the government and for the entire society.

We have very weak security structures around schools, obviously, because schools are being targeted. The fact that it happened the first time, the second time and the third time shows that the government has clearly failed in this regard.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

What is concerning to me is that we're not dealing with Nigeria being a failed state. We see their use of enormous levels of state power and violence. For example, you talked about how many people are on death row. It shows that there are priorities in where the state applies its security measures.

What does that say to the families of the children who have been kidnapped? What does it say to society in general that the priority is not the protection of these young girls and their right to education?

[Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu]

Priorities have always been misplaced, in my point of view, when it comes to budgeting, and this is why we continue to have scenarios like this in the country.

For example, there's the issue of torture that I spoke about, leading to extrajudicial killings and a high number of individuals on death row. It clearly shows that they would rather resort to torture than equip the police with the tools to be able to do their work.

On the other side, you have the police arguing that they don't have equipment and they have very poor budgets. This includes the military, which is on the front lines. They are, for example, supposed to protect girls from such abductions. They have come up to say they are not well equipped and they don't have the right tools.

Yes, it's a problem of priorities. The government needs to redirect its priorities to ensure that vulnerable groups, especially children, are protected and that we have a security force—particularly the police—that is well equipped and able to carry out its work of protection in society.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you.

Ms. Fahmi, you mentioned the issue of trafficking. We know that in destabilized situations or with issues where there are levels of violence in gangs, once again, young women and girls are targeted.

Last year, I was part of the parliamentary investigation into MindGeek, the giant international porn company. I was contacted by a number of feminists from the global south who wanted to focus on how places like Nigeria and other countries are being used as much larger trafficking rings.

Has your organization looked into this? What is the situation for human trafficking and the targeting and exploitation of young women and girls?

[Hulda Fahmi]

Jubilee Campaign released a report with the UN special rapporteur on slavery, and there is a report on the role of criminal gangs in slavery. I would refer to that, because I don't have the details with me. My colleague will be able to explain it much better.

I'm sorry. Your question was whether....

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

What is the picture? You're referring to slavery. I asked about human trafficking.

Is that what we're looking at? Is it enslavement, abuse, physical violence, sexual violence and the trafficking of young girls in destabilized areas, either by gangs or by terrorist groups?

[Hulda Fahmi]

Yes, we are seeing that. During COVID, it increased, of course, with the role of digital.... I would say that during COVID, we also saw an increase because of the lack of documentation and because of the increase in web pornography. There was a greater—

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

You saw a direct correlation between the isolation of people, online pornography and the abuse of young girls and women in the context of Nigeria. You saw that connection.

[Hulda Fahmi]

There were some trends in that, but I can't speak specifically to that.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sameer Zuberi]

Thank you, Mr. Angus.

Now we'll continue to a series of five-minute rounds, starting with Mr. Ehsassi, please.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you also to our witnesses.

I have to say, having listened to you and having read about the situation in Nigeria, that it's pretty obviously it's a very bleak situation. There is a crisis of legitimacy insofar as the government is concerned. There are various militia groups throughout the country. There's food insecurity. There's displacement of individuals. There is a refugee flow.

Our mandate is to come up with recommendations, as opposed to just focusing on all the challenges that currently exist.

I understand, from listening to Angela, that your recommendation was about the need for accountability and oversight. I can presume that would deal only with organs of the state and would not cover militia groups throughout the country. However, that being said, insofar as accountability is concerned, is there a specific model you have in mind that has been used in other countries and in other similar contexts as well?

[Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu]

In regard to accountability, the model that I would recommend is one with a robust internal accountability mechanism. This is important because it would help to build trust and transparency in the system. It's a mechanism that is able to provide feedback and communicates to not just those who are going to engage with it, but also society at large.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

I completely appreciate and agree with your recommendation—the need for accountability—but what organ do you want to see actually implement this accountability? Is it international institutions? In your opinion, who should do it?

Are there other models that have been attempted in other countries that you think would be useful in this particular context?

[Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu]

There can be multiple layers.

First, there needs to be an independent mechanism at the national level that is able to carry this out. You could also have that at the international level, but first there needs to be an in-country, independent mechanism that is able to carry out this oversight. That would be my primary recommendation.